Each time we challenge you to spin a particular type of yarn for our Your Yarns challenge in Spin-Off magazine, we save the yarns that are submitted and have appeared in the magazine. We invite individuals or organizations to make things with the yarn, then we auction the items made through eBay's giving works program and donate the amount of the winning bid to a fibery charity. This is Your Yarn in Action. If you're interested in making items for Your Yarns in Action, please contact me at aclarkemoore@interweave.com.

Tammy Kurzmack, Spin-Off's editorial intern, transformed the bulky yarns from the Winter 2004 Your Yarn department into two beautiful pillows. The auction ran from July 5-15, 2005 on eBay. The Home Textile Tool Museum, located in Orwell, Pennsylvania, was the beneficiary of the auction.

Thank You!

Our July auction raised $103.50 for the The Home Textile Tool Museum.

 
“Can't wait to get the pillows; I shall treasure them always!”

  —Wendi Woerheide of Lutsen, Minnesota, when notified that she had placed the winning bid. 

A Note from the Artist

Honored and a bit intimidated, I wove the bulky yarns from the Winter 2004 Your Yarn! department into pillows. I usually plan my projects by carefully choosing the colors and yarns, and calculating exactly what the warp and weft needs will be. With the bulky yarns, I had no idea how they would act with each other, how much I had of each, or how they would look when they packed down. I wove the white pillow twice and the multicolored pillow three times! Between weaving the two, I learned to let go of my need to plan and just let the yarn lead me.

I used a wool warp on both pillows. Each one is backed with brushed cotton, and three wooden buttons allow access to the pillow form inside for easy washing. I’m grateful to Melissa Mangan and Sue Neufeld of the Viking Sewing Gallery of Fort Collins, Colorado, for the sewing thread and their talent. These two ladies constructed the pillows in an afternoon, while tag-team-teaching three customers.

It was a privilege to be included in this project. I hope these two labors of love will find a good home.

— Tammy Kurzmack, editorial intern
 

About the Home Textile Tool Museum

The Home Textile Tool Museum, located in Orwell, Pennsylvania, will be the beneficiary of this auction. The Museum is a nonprofit educational institution dedicated to the understanding of textile production in the American home from 1790 to 1840. Currently the museum is trying to raise $20,000 to restore an 1811 threshing barn to use for workshops, lectures, and displays. For more information about the Home Textile Tool Museum, see the Summer 2002 issue of Spin-Off, page 30, visit their website www.hometextiletoolmuseum.org, or contact them by e-mail at info@httm.org.

July 17, 2005

Dear Spin-Off Staff and Readers of Spin-Off,

The Home Textile Tool Museum greatly appreciates your continued support of our museum. Your recent auction "Your Yarns! Bulky! Pillows" on our behalf was wonderful. Thank you so much for the $103.50 earned to support our Threshing Barn stabilization and first phase restoration.

Sincerely,

Pamella Mawhiney, Pres.
Home Textile Tool Museum
P.O. Box 153
Rome, PA 18837

An update from the auction recipient:

A representative of The Home Textile Tool Museum said that renovation of the museum’s barn has already begun. The boards were stripped off the exterior while the frame underwent a straightening, tethered to surrounding trees. Fund raising efforts will continue in order to fund all of the planned improvements.

About the Yarns

More than 40 Spin-Off readers donated the yarn for these beautiful handwoven pillows.

 Yarns used in the white pillow were spun by:
Dale Jackson
Andrea Christianson
Paula Pavlovic
Jo-Anne Tabachek
Kristine Mastrodonato
Judith Pergau
Marie Witte
Fyfa Dawson
Orla Dawson
Darcy Maloney
Peggy Bass

 
 
Yarn used in the colored pillow were spun by:
Judith Michels
Barbara Zseleczky Hurd
Carole Edelman
Marie Witte
Jill Lundgren
Charlotte Pavelko
Angela Schneider
Ginny Queior
James Beasley
Eirian Roberts
Kathleen Foto
Irene Rautanen
Jennifer Haman
Selah Barling
Sue Spencer
Pam Lipper
Mike Heck
Beth Morimoto
Joy Getha
Lillian Goldberg
Karyn Deming
Ellen Hall
Judith Pergau
Jane Rusch
Crystal Canning
Mary Lessman
Nancy Wilson
Lynn McGowan
Irene Anderson
Judy Gilchrist
Veryl Ann Grace
Kris Jacobs
Adrian Bizilia
Darcy Maloney
Dale Jackson