SOAR Scholar's Blog

2013 SOAR Scholarship

Amy Clarke Moore — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 23:39:00 GMT

We are accepting applications for SOAR Scholarships to attend SOAR 2013 in Pheasant Run, Illinois. Complete applications must be received by March 6, 2013.

Spinning the Edges

aa.thorstenson — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 12:41:00 GMT

Spinning the Edges

Spinning connects me in those moments when I feel alone, when I wonder who I am, where I fit in and in what direction I should go. When I feel lost, I spin. At first it’s subtle. I find the way the colors are working together interesting, then slowly I become those colors intertwining, I start to imagine the ply and see the possibilities. I get lost in the feeling of the fiber sliding over my fingers, seeing the crimp of the staple pulling apart and becoming yarn. It’s a miracle.

Spinning connects me to my grandmothers and great grandmothers, connecting me to the first person who looked at a Yucca leaf and thought, “If I stomp on that and twist it, I can work those fibers with my fingers and make something useful.” There is something ancient and comforting in spinning and the creation of yarn for me, it’s a rhythm that my soul recognizes and delights in.

When I came to SOAR (Interweave’s Spin-Off Autumn Retreat) in October 2011 as the Evitt scholar, I felt my life spinning out of control. I had left my life in Guatemala, where I worked teaching 1st through 4th graders to knit, spin and crochet. It was a time when I felt as though I was growing as a person and impacting the world around me, I enjoyed my work. I followed a gentle and but insistent voice of the Universe saying over and over, “Let go, return, now.” Much of the time it didn’t make sense to me or anyone else in my life. The voice seemed to be saying, “Drop everything you’ve created and go to the States now.” I doubted and struggled and suffered (all self-induced agony of course) and then finally I returned to the United States of America with my family.

Being in the States was novel at first, I made a list of things I wanted to do, places to go hiking or camping, friends to see, I planned it out like a vacation. I confidently told people the "schedule," but truthfully, I had no idea where we were headed.

I arrived at SOAR feeling out of place. Everywhere I looked there were people walking, talking, drafting, spinning and wearing awesome handknits, not just simple handknits, but incredible, handspun, handknits. I was sure the Scholarship Committee had made a mistake in selecting me! I had no clue how I would share what I was about to receive. My impulse was to run. Fortunately, my stubborn determination carried me through to the registration table, from then on it was magical. I cast on my first shawl, a simple pattern, but from my own handspun.

My week at SOAR was amazing, incredible, expanding and life changing all rolled into one. I made yarn, I made friends, I knit my shawl, I grew in confidence that I have the ability to make beautiful things that are fiber related and I was terrified for it to end. When it did end my family came to get me. I had to pack up my wheel, fit it (and all of the new stash I had acquired) in the station wagon with all of the camping gear, cooler, games, books, and everyone else’s stuff. The wheel was at the bottom, buried, inaccessible. I saw the blank slate of my life ahead of me and it was scary. Suddenly I was in a part of my life that I had not visualized, nor planned for. There we were, a family of four, on the road, no obligations, no destination and just one hope, to recognize “home” as we drove by on the highways of the U.S.A. We headed west and came to Chicago. There we stayed with a friend from Peru, eating amazing food that we cooked together and speaking Spanish.

From there we continued onward to Wisconsin, visiting friends in Mt. Horeb. We were able to meet their two year old and discover that they were just days away from the arrival of their second child. Talk about timing, I would never have planned dropping in on the final days of nesting, but it all worked perfectly. We hiked together, talked about parenting, ate good food, laughed and cried. We saw ourselves reflected in the faces of our friends. We remembered who we were. We talked a lot about my experience at SOAR, new people that I had connected with, new ideas that I had brewing. As it turns out they had just inherited a great grandmother’s spinning wheel and wanted to learn how to use it. It was stashed in the corner of the basement. I checked out the wheel and without too much effort it could be up and spinning in no time. I made a list for them and then I brought my wheel in and taught my friend to spin. She made yarn, beautiful yarn. She was a beautiful Goddess spinning beautiful yarn as she waited for the arrival of her child.

A beautiful baby girl was born at home nine days later.

It was then that my brother in Memphis, Tennessee, called and said that my Dad’s health was declining. He had been diagnosed with a cancer two years earlier. South we went. On our way we stopped at Land Between the Lakes at the Kentucky and Tennessee border. There we visited the old homestead. Men were making tools from pig iron and carving their handles from local woods. Women were tending the fire in the cabin while knitting and spinning in virtual darkness. (My husband says that he doesn’t remember the darkness, he obviously wasn’t knitting.) At the homestead they raised Merino sheep, so I bought some of their fiber with the idea to spin the wool and knit my Dad a small blanket.

At my parent's home I set up my wheel and explained to my Dad of 77 years of age what I was doing. I told him that I would spin the wool and knit him a small lap blanket. He watched me spinning and said many times “That work looks tedious,” and “Do you enjoy doing that?” I answered, “Yes, I enjoy spinning very much” and I reminded him of the stories that his mother, my grandmother, had shared with me of her childhood growing up in Greece. Her job as a girl was to prepare the flax fiber for her mother to spin into thread for weaving. I reminded him that the spinning of fiber is the source of most of our clothing and we take that for granted. I sat with my Dad for a week. I spun the wool, designed and knit on his blanket for that week, and then we left for South Dakota.

The beautiful soul of my Dad left his body at home nine days later.

On my journey, I realized that spinning had taken me from one edge of life to another. From birth to death, with the mystery of my own life unfolding along the way. I like to think that as that baby waited to be born and as my Dad waited to leave this earth that spinning was a familiar rhythm for each of those souls. I think it reminded them of ancient traditions and this eased their transitions. I know that spinning is that for me, easing difficult times and transitions, reminding me of who I am, and connecting me with the very fiber of our existence. I recognize through my experience with SOAR that in fact my life wasn’t spinning out of control, it was in perfect order and each small twist was creating the fabric of my life.

I now live in the southern Chilean town of Pucón, where sheep and wool are abundant. I teach English in a local Waldorf school where my children study. I am maintaining my strong connection to Guatemala by organizing fiber tours there, my first tour being in July of 2013! In this tour we will work with Tzutujil Mayan women spinning cotton, using plants for dyeing cotton, and then weaving. I am thrilled to be coming full circle on a dream, and I realize that it was something I mentioned casually at SOAR, “I can take my first tour to Guatemala in 2013,” and now it is coming true.

Thank you for the opportunity to attend SOAR, it impacted my life in the most amazing ways, and continues to inspire me in my work.

Annie Touliatos Thorstenson

Evitt Scholar SOAR 2011

annie.touliatos@gmail.com

Past SOAR Scholars

Melanie@2 — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 02:41:00 GMT

I was thinking other day about SOAR and its 30 year celebration. It got me to thinking and wondering how many past scholars will be attending SOAR this year and how neat a picture it would make. I really hope you are planning on attending this year. Please let us know if you are and let's see if we can get a picture.

Notebook of Memories by Bristol Ivy

BristolI — Sat, 30 Jun 2012 20:11:00 GMT

As I thought about how to begin this essay, describing my amazing time at SOAR 2011 in Manchester, the first thing I did was to bring out my SOAR notebook. It started its life as an unassuming lined notebook, but as the week progressed, the hole punch I had squirreled away in my supplies turned it into a festival of handspun yarn. Tassels of Clun Forest, Hog Island, Shetland, Lincoln Longwool, Manx Loaghtan, and many others adorn the edges, and index cards with bright stripes of handpainted handspun singles fall out at a moment's notice. It is the most tangible piece of evidence I own of what I learned last October, but the memories are worth even more.

Over the course of my fiber career, I have taken blushingly few classes, let along ones that were as stimulating as those I was privileged to take at SOAR. In Deb Robson's Rare Wools class, I learned that my path didn't necessarily need to be either/or: that academia and fiber had many possible combinations and iterations that I'd never dreamed of. My training in anthropology made me swoon at the possibilities in breed development—how would a major historical event effect breed characteristics? And how would certain waves of humanity meet with other waves, dragging their varied and wild flocks of sheep behind them? Besides giving us a stunning variety of information for the plethora of breed samples we had to play with, Deb's enthusiasm for our questions was unparalleled and wonderful.

Jacey Bogg's class on thick and thin and coiled yarn was similarly mindblowing. I am a workhorse yarn spinner—thin, even, 3-plies ready for sweaters and socks. I added Jacey's class to my registration because I knew it would be a kick in the pants—but it was so much more! Learning about her incredibly precise perspective on the physics of spinning brought art yarn from an unachievable and mystical form to something even my little nerd heart could love and grasp.

The other classes I took with Beth Smith, Stephenie Gaustad, and Janel Laidman left me reeling with new information and ideas. I had never spun cotton, nor played specifically with long wools, nor considered the various possibilities of pivot points and color shifts in hand dyed fiber. I left on Sunday morning completely overwhelmed, but wonderfully full of new information that I couldn't wait to implement.

However, alongside the learning experience I gained from the classes, I learned almost as much from my fellow participants. The nightly gatherings in the lobby, the conversations around the lunch table, the flurries and giggles as we all tried to fit ourselves and our wheels into the elevator in the morning—I have never been in a group of more interested and interesting people. I absolutely loved getting to know the other scholarship recipients—their dedication to furthering spinning in their community is utterly commendable. Among these wonderful, powerful women, I felt sure that their strength and love of spinning and fiber would keep it safe and flourishing for years to come.

In the months since SOAR and this revelatory experience, a lot has changed in my life. I was given the opportunity to work behind the scenes for one of my favorite yarn companies, Brooklyn Tweed, which necessitated leaving behind my teaching positions elsewhere. I have also spent the last year working hard on my knitting design career, only really letting myself take a break to spin on weekends. I've been so privileged with where I've gotten to go in my design career this past year; since SOAR, I've had eight designs published, with another seven in the pipeline. But even with my focus on the business side of the industry, the things I learned at SOAR are still with me-one of my current WIPs is a Sheep Heid hat (http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/sheep-heid) using the rare wool samples from Deb Robson's class for the colorwork; the hat will make its way into the SOAR scholarship auction as soon as I've worn it at Rhinebeck!

I'm also dusting off my teaching shoes to prepare for the New England Fiber Arts Retreat (http://www.medomakretreatcenter.com/newenglandfiberartsretreat.php), where, among other knitting and felting classes, I'll be able to teach one on one spinning lessons again. And every few weeks, I thumb through that notebook, so full of funny overheard comments, scraps of yarn, and priceless notes, and remember what a wonderful experience SOAR was for me. Thank you again to the scholarship committee for giving me this amazing opportunity to learn!

Looks like I will be coming home

Melanie@2 — Tue, 01 May 2012 19:31:00 GMT

When I was a scholar three years ago I never really thought I would be able to make another one. I had such a great experience, from the learning to meeting tons of really neat people and food wasn't bad either. When I got home and my husband asked how it all went, I told home it was like coming home because everyone at SOAR totally got me. They totally get the whole need for more fiber and cool tools. As a normally shy person it was so easy to sit at a table at lunch or in a chair with spinning wheel and say "Hi, I'm Melanie from Idaho what classes are you taking?" Something I would never do. But the wonderful people at SOAR make it so easy.

When I left Bend I never really thought I would be able to attend again, but as luck would have it I am now getting ready to come home again this year. After a couple of tense moments waiting for the registration button to load I was able to sign up for the class I really wanted to take. Although I will only be able to take the workshop and stay through Friday, it still will be great to meet up with my spinning "family" again.

See you all at SOAR!

Melanie Smith

Dyeing To Be A Kid Again

theytoldmesew — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 15:31:00 GMT

Yesterday was the 'reward' for my son's second grade class for working so hard throughout the year to learn to knit and for working together to create scarves and a blanket that will be donated to needy members of our community.

Yesterday was 'Dyeing Day'. Armed with 20 quart-sized canning jars, a bag full of Kool Aid packets, a double burner with pots, a plastic table cloth and 20 skeins of undyed yarn (courtesy of Brown Sheep Wool Co.), I called the children of Mrs. Sowder's second grade to the floor of her classroom and taught them to dye wool.

The kids had a ball watching the colors they chose bleed into the jar and mix and mingle.

They are gripped with anticipation to see the results of their unbridled creativity.

And I have a sneak preview...

And the beat goes on...

theytoldmesew — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 03:13:00 GMT

I really wanted to share this article that appeared in our local paper this week. I am immensely proud of these children.

Helping Hands Foundation generously donated the needles, books, yarn and other instruction materials and Brown Sheep Wool Co. graciously supplied us with more yarn once the children finished their initial projects. I hope to spread the knitting bug to more groups in the future, but was very fortunate to begin with this one and to have had such unyielding support from their teacher, Betty Sowder.

They may not all continue with knitting throughout their lives, but I'm confident they will never forget knitting in second grade!

Remembering SOAR 2006 in Tahoe City, CA

Kate Larson — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 17:20:00 GMT

My favorite question to ask someone I have just met at a spinning event is, "How did you become interested in spinning?" One of the unique qualities of our robust fiber community is that there are so many ports of entry. Many people are looking for a way to add a creative and calm corner to their lives, some are professional artists who venture our way, and some others are coming from agricultural backgrounds.

Belonging to the latter group, I grew up on an Indiana farm and studied Soil Science at Purdue University. I also spent a year living in England and enjoyed visiting as many museums and cafés as possible, with a novel perpetually tucked under my arm. When I discovered fiber arts, it was as if everything came together and fell into place. Textiles are, as I see it, the keystone to human culture. Textiles can provide for the basic human needs of our families, express our creativity, connect us with our environment, and pass our traditions on to future generations.

It was as I was finding my way down this path that my dear friend Susan Markle suggested to me, upon our first meeting, that I apply for a SOAR scholarship. The year I received my scholarship was also my first SOAR and, oh my, what a wild ride! As one of my favourite authors, Henry James, once wrote, "deep experience is never peaceful." The full immersion into the ceaseless exchange of information and ideas, the inspiration of techniques and textiles, the stories, characters, and lore of the event itself were staggering. When I returned home, I told my husband that it would take me an entire year just to process what I had seen, heard, and felt before SOAR came again the next year!

Since that time, I have tried to bring this energy and joyful inquiry to my own fiber community in Indiana and to each of the classes I teach. For the last three years, I have been the Chairman of Swift, an organization in Indiana that serves as a network for spinning and weaving guilds in the state. Organizations like Swift are vital to developing our existing connections as well as welcoming new folks. I also help manage the Spinner's Connection Blog here on SpinningDaily.com. I love reading the guild newsletters from around the world and learning about the creative ways that other guilds are growing and finding inspiration.

It is also important to be present in the wider community, sharing what we love about our crafts. I have done quite a few demonstrations at fairs, festivals, and museums, and I always enjoy them. I worked with the Indiana State Museum doing guest artist demonstrations when they hosted the "Radical Lace and Subversive Knitting" exhibit. Later, I taught a session of their kids' summer camp called "Fiberpalooza."

I have had the chance to meet so many wonderful people through our mutual love of fibers. SOAR opened the door to so many amazing experiences, like listening to Judith MacKenzie judge hundreds of fleeces at Black Sheep Gathering, traveling through Estonia with Nancy Bush, teaching at festivals like Wi sconsin Sheep an d Wool and SAFF (Southeastern Animal Fiber Festival), and the list continues to grow. Fiber arts, both traditional and modern, and the community that surrounds them have created so much joy in my life. I am so thankful for the opportunities I have been given and want to continue to give back... because we must help create the world we want to live in, stitch by stitch.

Sharing SOAR

MichelleBoyd — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 19:02:00 GMT

When I learned to spin 16 years ago, I learned alone, from a book. I lived in a remote community where there were no opportunities to learn to spin. There was no YouTube, no local guild, no kindly mentor. I was adrift with my new passion, with no guidance. Then I found Spin-Off Magazine. Spin-Off showed me new techniques that improved my spinning. Spin-Off introduced me to new fibers that I had never heard of. Spin-Off inspired me to use my yarns in ways I had not considered before. But most of all, Spin-Off showed me that there were others out there who shared my passion for an ancient craft. I was not alone.

I sought out mentors, first finding workshops with those names from the pages of Spin-Off, then traveling to learn from others. I learned, and I wanted to share what I had learned. Soon, I was a spinning mentor myself. I was a member of a community. A far-flung, generous, giving community of spinners who shared their wisdom, their discoveries, and their love of the craft. Geography didn't matter in this community, we were all connected. And the gateway into this community was Spin-Off Magazine.

I knew that Spin-Off held an annual Autumn Retreat, and I decided that I had to attend. But, with 3 children, there was always a reason not to. I sighed and passed up on the excitement of registration day year after year. Then a friend drew my attention to the SOAR Scholarship. I felt that applying for that scholarship was one of the bravest things I had ever done. I held my breath in the weeks after the application was sent, dreading the inevitable rejection. After all, who was I to ask to attend SOAR for free?

In April of 2010, I received an email from Amy Clarke-Moore. I screwed up all my courage and opened it, to discover that I had, indeed, been awarded a full SOAR Scholarship. Once I stopped screaming, I actually had to ask my husband to reread the email to confirm that I was not hallucinating. I was going to SOAR!

And go to SOAR I did. I traveled to Lake Delavan, Wisconsin and I attended workshops and retreats.

I spun and knit energized singles with Kathryn Alexander.

I dyed with Deb Menz and Sara Lamb.

I was awed by the versatility of cochineal, thanks to Demetrio Lazo.

I spun silk and merino on a Takli, against all reason, with Stephenie Gaustad.

I sat in on a fascinating chat between Judith MacKenzie and Margaret Stove about body mechanics during an Open Studio session and learned Jacey Boggs's special wrist flip for thick and thin yarns.

I witnessed the miracle of Margaret Stove's method for washing Merino...

...and I spun super fine yarn from Merino locks under Margaret's gentle guidance. (Yes, her hands are ablur--she's that vigorous!)

I met and mingled with my community...

...including my fellow SOAR Scholarship winner Sarah Wilson and the lovely Linda Ligon.

I laughed, I learned, and I shared.

Then it was over.

I left SOAR inspired to make wondrous things from the beautiful fibers I had purchased from the vendors. I left with great plans for a shawl of energized singles, for a multi-colored sweater dyed only with cochineal, for a gossamer lace shawl.

I went from SOAR to a teaching assignment for the Olds Master Spinner Program, and I itched to get home and spin all those marvelous visions dancing in my head into reality. Then a month went by, and another, and suddenly, it was today. As I sat down to blog about SOAR, I struggled. I had no marvelous finished projects based upon the techniques I had learned to show off. I had no great opus to display.

Oh, I had the Helix scarf I was inspired to make by Stephenie Gaustad that was published to Spinning Daily.

I had my lovely lace shawl, spun and knit from fiber purchased at SOAR.

i had photos and memories galore, but I had no proof of what I had learned.

And then I realized what I had done instead of churning out project after project, I had passed along the knowledge I had gained at SOAR to others. I had taught non-spinners the wonders of cochineal in local dye workshops here in Fort McMurray.

I had shared Margaret Stove's washing method with Master Spinner students in both the US and Canada.

I have used the new perspectives on twist that I gained from Kathryn Alexander to encourage student spinners to try new techniques.

Instead of hoarding my newfound wisdom and inspiration, I had given it back to the community. I shared, as the mentors at SOAR had shared with me. Spin-Off, it's contributors, and the mentors who come to SOAR were the first introductions I had to the spinning community, and now I could pass the knowledge along as it had been passed to me. And now, with this blog, I have the opportunity to share the experience of SOAR with Spinning Daily members.

I have been fortunate enough to be invited back to SOAR this year, this time as a mentor myself. It will be my very great pleasure to meet the new Scholarship recipients, to welcome them to our community, and to share all that Spin-Off and SOAR have given me with them, and with everyone else who spins.

See you at SOAR!

Life After SOAR

theytoldmesew — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 21:04:00 GMT

I used to fight wildfires many years ago, when I was younger and more fit. And although the memories of muscle aches and pains and soot and ash in every crack and crevice of my body have faded (somewhat), I still vividly remember the training prior to my first wildfire. We hauled hose and dug line. We learned the difference between a pulaski and a potato rake. We learned about deploying our fire shelter in case of burn over. The day that phone call came and the dispatcher on the other end of the line told me I was being sent to Oregon with a crew to fight my first fire, I was confident I was ready. I had completed my training with flying colors. I possessed a 'Red Card' with my name on it. I had packed and repacked my red bag many times to make sure it wasn't overweight and contained everything I would need to survive my first three-week detail on a fire. Yes. I was absolutely prepared and ready for this new challenge in my life.

Boy, was I wrong.

Blisters and mosquito bites. Deadly rolling rocks and burning trees. Ash-choked air and hot boot toes. Peeling off sweaty, sooty clothes, only to put them back on again the next day. Treacherous school bus rides up old, abandoned fire roads. And the FOOD! Don't even get me started on the food. On that first fire, I was nearly in shock. This wasn't what I expected at all. And in hindsight, I don't think any amount of training could have prepared me for what life was REALLY like as a wildland firefighter.

Parenthood. Another fine example of something for which you can never truly be prepared no matter what you read or are told. I have two children (10 and 7) and I, to this day, continue to be bewildered by how deceived I felt as the days and nights began to blend together from sleep deprivation and how my clothes constantly smelled of spit up and pureed squash. But I digress.

In the early months of 2010, I came across a glossy announcement in Spin-Off about SOAR 2010 in Delevan, Wisconsin. I logged online to read more and discovered the tab for the scholarship applications. Knowing I would never be able to afford to attend on my own, I gave myself a little pep talk, opened up a fresh document on my computer screen and started writing. Never in a million years did I expect this little venture would have a positive outcome (after all, SOAR would be happening the very week that deer season began here in South Dakota and denying my husband the opening of deer season could be construed as grounds for divorce), but I threw caution to the wind and submitted my application.

As you may have guessed...that outcome couldn't have been more positive. I was going to SOAR! In the months prior, I brushed up on my terminology, worked on honing my spinning skills, combed over every back issue of Spin-Off I owned and even bought some new clothes for the trip. I made list after list, packed and repacked, read every post on the SOAR forum on Ravelry and coined my new mantra, "Be the sponge". Selecting the workshop and retreats sessions was easy for me. I wanted to learn nunofelting as it would be a skill I could feasibly turn around and teach to children...the very foundation of my scholarship application and community focus. I signed up for Jacey Bogg's coil-spinning retreat as I had admired her amazing technique on the cover of Spin-Off , Deb Menz's color blending class because I knew anything I learned from her would be put to good use and Kathryn Alexander's entrelac class because, well, she is a knitting goddess and I have always admired her work. I spent months preparing for my voyage to Wisconsin and I WAS READY!

All together now... BOY, was I wrong. Just like firefighting and parenthood, no amount of reading or advice could prepare me for SOAR. I thought I would go and spend a nice week meeting people and learning new things. And I did. But it was so much more. My week was humbling and uplifting, confirming and eye-opening. I went thinking I would spend my days talking non-stop about fiber and spinning and the like. And although there was a great deal of fiber talk going on, I met and got to know people for who they are OUTSIDE of the fiber world. I had the extreme pleasure of sitting with Judith MacKenzie for lunch and discussing, of all things, archaeology. We never once spoke about fiber or spinning. I wonder how many fiber people can tout that they had lunch with 'Judith' and never spoke of fiber? Kathryn Alexander, Deb Menz and Sara Lamb graced our dinner table one night and I discovered that they all have a fierce sense of humor. I laughed so hard, I'm not sure I got around to eating my dinner that night. Stephenie Gaustad, at one of the spin-in gatherings, read a piece she wrote in response to Amy Clarke Moore's query, "what do you say to people when they ask you what you do for a living?" What Stephanie read was eloquent and poetic and I cried at the end. I wish I could remember every word she said, but I can only remember how it ended; "and the beat goes on...". It was worthy of print and really said a great deal about her. DeAnna Dailey was mentoring for her first year in 2010. I wasn't able to take any of her classes, but I met her through meals and during the open studio session and discovered she is a wonderful story-teller. I truly admired her verve for heading outdoors during that late autumn weather and foraging for items in nature to spin and use as spinning tools. Bobbi Daniels has one of the driest and most hilarious senses of humor I have ever come across, not to mention her natural gift with angora (the bunnies AND the fiber). And Margaret Stove. Well, the woman is a living legend and just to be able to tell her face-to-face how amazing and inspirational her work is to me was worth the entire trip. Sharon Costello was our mentor for nunofelting and 8 months later, I am still in awe over what she can do with fiber. She is a true artist in every sense of the word and I look forward to learning more from her in the future. And Michelle Boyd, my roommate and another 2010 scholar. We were fast friends from the moment we met and this year will be her SOAR Mentoring debut. I can now say, 'I knew her when...". There were many other mentors there and getting to know all of them in one week would be like trying to do all of Disneyworld in one day. I hope to cross paths with all of them someday. And no trip to a huge fiber event like this would be complete without meeting Stephanie Pearl-McPhee and getting her to hold my sock-in-progress for a photo. That was splendid.

I learned techniques and tips and shopped the marketplace....REALLY shopped the marketplace. I made friends and networked and created a hat in an hour. I traded stories and email addresses and when it was all over, I hugged a bunch of people who, 5 days before, were total strangers. I cried (and cried) and made my way home. My feet never touched the ground once.

In April, I met up with a fellow local spinner who I had not seen since my SOAR experience. She asked me about it and I proceeded to open the flood gates and tell her all about the mentors I had and the classes I took and the friends I made. When I finally finished my epic dialogue and interpretation of SOAR 2010, she looked at me and said, "Well, you must have had an amazing time because your eyes lit up and sparkled from the moment I asked and they haven't faded yet!". I took that as a fine compliment and as a testimony to how positively SOAR experiences can impact someone's life.

I suppose I should share what I have done with my newly-found knowledge. In November, our local elementary school hosted a two-night program called Reflections. It is funded by the National PTA and is designed to bring art into schools where the students aren't fortunate enough to have art classes. I offered to teach nunofelting to up to 6 students each night (photo attached). My little masterclass was full both nights and I witnessed a blossoming of creativity from kids who I doubt have ever had a chance to express themselves in such a way. I had only one boy among my students and he did, in my humble opinion, the best job of any of them. I really got a charge out of watching his eyes as the fused fabric of silk and fiber emerged before him. What a treat for me to see my still-new skill unleashed on the creative minds of children.

I continue to expose our little community to fiber and spinning every time I'm waiting for my own children at soccer practice or summer recreation classes or I'm substitute teaching at the elementary school. My spindle and knitting go with me everywhere and seldom does a day go by when a child (or adult) doesn't ask me what I'm doing. I am only too happy to launch into a mini-workshop about sheep and fiber and dyeing and spinning and the ancient art of textiles, etc. I'm sure many of them walk away wondering what they did to deserve such a flood of unsolicited information. But there might be that 'one' who is glad they asked. And that's the 'one' I'm always looking for.

Just like wildland firefighting and parenthood, SOAR has changed my life in so many positive ways, I doubt I'll ever be able to name all of them. The memories of classes and friends and experiences there are constantly tumbling through my brain - like waves bringing new shells to the shoreline with every pass. In fact, I can only think of one thing SOAR brought to my life that has affected me negatively...Now I know what I'm missing.

SOAR Scholar's Blog

Amy Clarke Moore — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 19:14:00 GMT

Welcome to the SOAR Scholar's blog. The Scholarship committee created this blog for SOAR Scholar's to post stories and photos of the work they've done as result of the Scholarship that took them to SOAR (Spin-Off Autumn Retreat). If you're a SOAR Scholar and would like to be able to post to this blog, please send me an email at aclarkemoore@interweave.com and I'll get you set up as an author on the blog.

If you're interested in the SOAR Scholarship, guidelines can be found here. The 2011 deadline for applications is February 8, 2011.