Jill Duarte is a dyer, a spinner, an equipment aficionado, a fleece sniffer, a former academic and an unabashed fiber nerd. Jill is one half of the duo behind HipStrings and spends their days geeking out about all things fiber, diving into the nuances of fiber preparation, color, and the act of spinning.

Since picking up spinning over a decade ago, and then starting HipStrings a decade ago, Jill has taken an approach to spinning that is grounded in a technical approach married to historical context and a lot of curiosity as to how things work. In other words, they read all the books and tried all the things and made lots of mistakes so that you don’t necessarily have to.

As an instructor, Jill excels in explaining the “Why?” of spinning, whether it’s exploring the relationship between fibers and spinning techniques, the physics of handspinning and the tools we use for spinning, or providing insight in how to make something work for you. Jill challenges students to try fibers new to them, explore novel fiber blends and techniques, revisit things they’ve tried before and to step out of their comfort zones in order to expand their horizons as spinners.

Jill’s workshops are focused on encouraging spinners to try new fibers and learn more about the wide, wild, and wonderful world of fiber through a framework of fiber structure and characteristics. With the information presented, students should leave with the confidence to explore new fibers, to seek out new challenges and fiber blends, to boldly go where no spinner has gone before.

You can see more of what Jill’s up to on Instagram (@hipstrings) or at http://www.hipstrings.com