Since it appears to be the season in my life where I reflect on my life, I have been thinking a lot about teaching.
I started teaching almost as soon as I started weaving. Teaching spinning, which might surprise, but I knew two cents worth of spinning and was willing to share what I knew. And I wasn't alone - I had a co-teacher, who knew maybe 5 cents worth about spinning and together we tried to help people get their wheels turning in the 'correct' direction and how to draft and twist their fibres.
It seems I was a fairly 'natural' teacher - I have no credentials saying that I know a thing or two about teaching. But I loved learning, had some really excellent (and some not so) teachers and had taken 'note' of those I felt were good and why, and those who were not, and why. I learned about how to teach as well as the subject being taught.
It was not a dream or desire of mine to teach. I really wasn't interested in teaching people who didn't want to learn, so teaching as a paid instructor in a school was of little interest to me. But if you were interested in what I wanted to teach? I would pull out all the stops.
As per usual, when I wanted to learn more about something, I read about that something, and so I read books on how to teach.
It was only a few years ago I saw the quote: A good teacher shows you where to look, not what to see.
So it is with a great deal of satisfaction I now see some of my Olds students beginning to teach - writing, speaking.
And I think about the really hard task they will have going forward, when so many people are putting their trust/confidence in...LLM/AI.
The thing that irritates me (one of them) is that the LLM/AI has been 'trained' by having the companies literally steal the written materials from the legal copyright holders. And then instead of quoting them honestly, they 're-write' the stolen materials, even to the point of inventing citations for books that were never written by the authors that are listed. (The negative environmental impacts are another thing, which I won't go into here.)
The information is a word salad of 'plausible' information that only needs to 'appear' accurate, not to *be* accurate.
So when I set out to create Magic in the Water, I did not have to 'fight' for space in the market going up against a plagiarism machine. I had an 'honest' relationship with the people who bought my book. I shared what I *knew* after extensive experimentation and documentation. I continued that approach with The Intentional Weaver, and have always followed in any magazine articles I have submitted.
I'm very nervous about the next issue of WEFT. Given I wrote most of it in the aftermath of the brain bleed, I struggled to get my words lined up in a way that made sense. I had enormous assistance from Sheila, and I know that Jacey and Lisa worked - *hard* - to go through my text and try to present the documentation and words in a way that explains what I did. The topic turned out to be complex enough that I over ran my assigned word count - by a lot. And still did not cover the topic in as great a detail that I would have liked. Subtlety is like that.
The topic is only one of the more subtle aspects of building a textile and most people make certain assumptions - which do not hold in practice.
There are weavers currently studying varying aspects of weaving, one topic at a time. If you are interested in such a thing, Complex Weavers has a number of study groups. Being part of a collective search of the topic of textiles means that each person takes one aspect, researches it, then shares with the rest of the group. And everyone learns more than they knew before and exchanges that information.
While the fallout of LLM/AI continues, this is one way for us, as practitioners who want to keep learning, can do that - with integrity.
And that is why Magic has an extensive range of samples (samples above created just for Magic). Because everything depends. Change one thing and everything can change.
If you, like me, don't trust LLM/AI to provide accurate information, buy a book. Or several. Hell, acquire your own personal library!
I am old enough now that I tend to hear about projects that are being considered. Now, creating a book can take years. Quite literally years. Some of them may only ever have limited numbers published as the book industry takes hit after hit by AI produced word salad. But I do know, for a fact, that several people are working on books and may have something ready to present in 2026. Or it might take longer! I spent years of my life creating Magic in the Water, using a local printer (are there any of those anymore????) and self-publishing, then marketing it. The official publication date was July of 2002. In 2008, when my brother died, we were *still* assembling books and it took years after that before I sold the last 'major' book, in 2011, and created the pdf version. The Intentional Weaver took 4+ years.
It is not my place to announce things that others are doing. But when they let me know I can do that, I will share the news.
In the meantime, I'm anxiously awaiting the appearance of the last issue of WEFT, which due to the Canada Post rotating work stoppages still hasn't appeared, and more especially the next issue.
As usual, three of my books are available here in either pdf or print versions, and in my ko-fi shop in pdf download.
I know budgets are incredibly tight right now, but now is exactly the time society needs to recognize expertise and support it happening. If you want to do your own research, please ignore LLM/AI and research actual knowledge, be that in books, or blogs like this where I try to explain the craft, honestly, magazines written by people who actually know stuff, don't just repeat myths that don't actually contain the 'whole' truth.
Because change one thing, everything can change...
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