What is your research style? As we gain ever-increasing access to library materials, on-line forums, virtual classes, and our treasure trove of classic weaving books, I was curious about how each of you prefer to dig deeply while researching a weaving pattern or issue?

Do you dash over to the Guild library on its open day or at our regular meeting? Do you turn to the county Library to place a book on hold? Do you subscribe to Handweaving.Net to explore their vast collection of books with public access? Do you check out You-Tube for a specific subject video? Do you have Handwoven/Spin-Off magazines back to their origin, and look things up in their index? And then there is a University in Arizona that has open access to a large amount of historical weaving books.

My weaving hoarding instinct is to try to own a lot of reference and instruction books – as if the knowledge they contain would just transmit to my brain through the act of owning the book. I tell my family there will be one heck of a dead weavers’ sale when I am gone – of course after our Guild library gets first dibs.

But seriously, as I prepare for the classes I will take at ANWG, our TWG library contained two HUGE books that are on the bibliography. They are so HUGE that I would never have owned them, yet they are packed with inspiration and history, and reviewing them makes me even more eager for my class.

Some like paper versions, some like computer based…….there is a place and a method for each of us in our Guild to increase our knowledge and skill level, and to share resources as well. If you are in need of information on a particular topic, reach out to our membership for their ideas on sources.

And thank you to libraries everywhere.

Linda