Handwoven Spring 2025

We invite you to welcome springtime along with Handwoven. From airy scarves to lacy table linens, and a painterly wall-hanging to a light jacket for breezy days—the ten enticing projects in this issue will help lighten up your weaving as the days lengthen.

Are you intrigued by lace, drawn to doubleweave, or curious about sashiko? In the mood for inlay, or obsessed with stripes? Whatever your preference, there’s a project here to spark your creative spirit. And in keeping with the season’s gentler weather, you’ll find scarves and towels using silk, mohair, or linen, as well as cotton and Tencel.

Then, expand your weaving skills and understanding with the articles and features in this issue.

• Tom Knisely writes about the value of textiles, from how to set a price for your weaving to how much you’ll pay for the work of others—and the surprising reasons those prices can vary widely. 
• Karen Donde reviews a comprehensive and important new book about how to weave optical illusions.
• Feeling confused about color? Tien Chiu explains how and why you can weave dramatically different pieces on the same warp—simply by changing your tie-up.
• Learn to use a handful of beads (or short pieces of drinking straws!) to create leno lace without doups or pick-up sticks.
• Meet a web tool meant for embroidery patterns, and learn about using it to easily create your own sashiko weaving drafts.

Moving around the world, Karen Brock gives us a glimpse of a remote Nepalese village where weavers are hanging on to their traditions in the wake of the pandemic. And you’ll learn about eri and how it is produced in a brief excerpt from Karen Selk’s recent book about wild silk.   

Embrace the season with the easy breezy, light and lacy ideas you’ll find in Handwoven Spring 2025.

Articles:

• Notes from the Fell—Thoughts About the Nature of Value, by Tom Knisely
• Knotted-Pile Weaving Tradition Endures, for Now, by Karen Elting Brock
• Color Lab—Magic in the Tie-Up, by Tien Chiu
• Create Sashiko Weaving Drafts with Ease, by Mary McConnell
• Eri Silk Runs Deep in Assam, by Karen Selk
• Weaving Leno? Let Beads Do the Work! by Annette Swan Schipf
• Endnotes—A Gift of Yarn, by Eloise DeHaan

Projects:

• Sweet Linen and Lace Towels by Malynda Allen (4-shaft)
• Lighter than Air Shawl by Véronique Perrot (2- or 4-shaft)
• Sunset Reflections wall hanging by Rebecca Smith (2- or 4-shaft)
• Cherry Blossom Scarf by Yvonne Ellsworth (4-shaft)
• Sashiko Trails Table Linens by Mary McConnell (8-shaft)
• Sugar Plum Lace Scarf by Susan Du Bois and Robin Wilton (4-shaft)
• Shades of Flax Towels by Dana Lutz (4-shaft)
• Mosaic Tiles Scarf by Eileen Lee (8-shaft)
• Spring Breeze Jacket by Annette Swan Schipf (4-shaft)
• City Circuits Scarf by Kate Lange McKibben (8-shaft)