Joy McCracken
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.
Robin Van Auken
I am a writer and educator, specializing in historic topics. I have 25+ years as a journalist, working for daily and weekly newspapers in Florida and Pennsylvania. I am the author and co-author of 10 books on regional history, including "Play Ball! The Story of Little League Baseball."
I teach communication and anthropological archaeology at Lycoming College. I also direct the summer youth program, Lycoming College for Kids & Teens.
Educational Specialties: Experience developing curricula for for students of all ages. Confident speaker for groups, small and large. Experience mentoring and advising students, and overseeing independent projects and internships.
Editorial Specialties: Writing, editing, researching, instructing, organizing workshops, website content development, teaching and integrating social media, and most activities within general print and digital communications.
Anthropological Specialties: Instructing, overseeing field schools, organizing public archaeology digs, museum curation, cultural consultation, historic and prehistoric site survey, researching, writing reports.
Books by Van Auken
