Joy McCracken
Joy McCracken is a spinning and weaving expert. McCracken demonstrates the craft of creating fabric from animal hair to students. One of her specialties is drop spindle spinning, an early technique for making yarn without a spinning wheel.
When she heard how the women of Bolivia used drop spindles as they were fetching wood and water for their families, McCracken asked for a basket filled with wool and a drop spindle for Christmas in 1989. She took lessons, bought her first spinning wheel shortly thereafter and then moved on to weaving, and followed with her first loom purchase.
Owner of a farm, she raises various types of goats, sheep and other animals that provide the raw materials for her work, paying particular attention to animals that produce long, strong wool fibers. She uses her interest in historic textiles and love of children’s literature to demonstrate and instruct at Bradford County ’s home textile museum, at Muncy Historical Society’s educational events, at Lycoming County ’s Day Camp, and at the Warrior Run-Fort Freeland Heritage Days Festival.
