These are the basic "rules" that we worked with for both the 2008 and 2009 exchanges. These are adapted (slightly) from the process used by the Aurora Colony Handspinners Guild in Oregon, USA. Their story was presented in the article titled "Secret Sibling Scarf Exchange" in the Winter 1991 issue of SpinOff magazine, pages 17-18.
- Each participant would submit sufficient fiber to make a scarf: 6-8 ounces. They would specify whether the scarf would be for a man, a woman, or an “either is fine”.
- Each participant would receive another person’s fiber, and spin and knit/crochet/whatever to make a scarf for a man, woman or “either is fine” as specified.
- Since the fiber was all shipped to me by the end of December 07 for distribution in early January 08, you got fiber if you sent fiber.
- No-one would know who they were making the scarf for until they notified me they had completed the scarf. At that point I would tell them whose fiber they got, and they would communicate with that person to arrange shipping the scarf.
- People would have 6 months to complete the project, starting in January 08 and completing at end of June 08.
- I asked people to join the exchange only if they really believed they could meet the 6 month deadline.
- People were told up-front that their fiber could well be going to a novice spinner, so should not send fibers with a reputation for being difficult to spin, or that were very expensive. And since people would be getting their fiber back as a scarf, they would be discouraged from sending “junk” fiber. (Not that anyone would anyway, but I have heard of people unloading junk fiber in exchanges.)
- Bloggers were asked not to write about the project on their blogs until after they had sent the finished scarf to its recipient. This was to keep that anonymity in place.
- Each participant was asked to send me a photo and brief write-up about the scarf they made so there would be some centralized record of the exchange.
- People who had not completed their scarf by the end of June 2008 would be introduced by email to the person they were making it for.
- Each participant was to keep in mind that their task was to make "a scarf" with the supplied fiber. While it had to be suitable for M or F as requested by the person who sent the fiber and who would receive it, the only criteria was that it had to be "a scarf".
Back to the blog post that introduced the idea, for the 2008 exchange