As a college student and weaver, Amy Oxford fell in love with the punch-needle method of rug hooking almost by accident, a surprising benefit from a babysitting gig. She followed her interest from doing piece work on existing designs to creating large commissioned rugs in her own business. In 1995, she started the Oxford Company to sell supplies and education for punch needle crafters worldwide.

The basic techniques of punch needle are straightforward enough to teach in a few minutes, but the opportunities for creativity in line, texture, and color have kept Amy enthralled for 40 years. After completing several large commissioned works, she found herself with repetitive strain injuries in her hand and arm, and she began dreaming of a tool that would let her work pain-free. Partnering with a woodworker and inventor, she developed the Oxford Punch Needle, a groundbreaking wooden-handled tool with a curved grip that’s comfortable to push and pull through fabric.

Along with manufacturing her own tool and selling hand-dyed yarn and supplies, Amy expanded her reach by teaching the technique, then opening a school that certifies instructors in her methods. Amy has also authored a number of books, most recently Intermediate & Advanced Punch Needle Rug Hooking: Techniques, Projects, and Inspirations.

Since selling her company in 2024, Amy has returned to punch needle just for the joy of it. “I can just make whatever I want and not have to tell anyone how I’ve done it,” she says. “I can just play, which is what my students have gotten to do. . . . And so I’m having a lot of fun now punching just for this sheer pleasure of it.”

Treenway Silks is where weavers, spinners, knitters and stitchers find the silk they love. Select from the largest variety of silk spinning fibers, silk yarn, and silk threads & ribbons at TreenwaySilks.com. You’ll discover a rainbow of colors, thoughtfully hand-dyed in Colorado. Love natural? Treenway's array of wild silks provide choices beyond white.

If you love silk, you’ll love Treenway Silks, where superior quality and customer service are guaranteed.

Follow the Threads to France on a 8-day tour of the rich traditions of French textiles. From tapestry of the Middle Ages to contemporary haute couture, our trips immerse you in the colors, forms, and techniques of half a millennium of textile fabrication and design. Guided visits are coupled with hands-on experiences in Paris, Versailles, and Calais. To learn more about this fiber adventure, visit followthethreads.com.

Have you heard of The Woolly Thistle? We’re a brick-and-click yarn shop specializing in non-superwash, woolly wool yarns from the UK and Europe. We have fast and free shipping and you can check us out at TheWoollyThistle.com, two L’s in Woolly. (And let us do the international shipping and tariffs, so you don’t have to.)

At an unexpected juncture in her life, artist Jordana Munk Martin turned to the legacy of her grandmother’s trove of textile books. Edith Wyle founded the Craft and Folk Art Museum in Los Angeles in 1973, curating unconventional exhibits and instilling a love of art in her family. Her granddaughter found inspiration and comfort in the books, then opened the library for other artists to explore.

That original collection is now the core of Tatter, a nonprofit organization named for soft, worn, well-used textiles. It includes the iconic Tatter Blue Library, an array of classes, a journal, and retail. “We’re really a conversation about cloth, housed in a cultural arts organization,” says Jordana.

Tatter’s educational offerings began with classes in stitching, adding online classes and presentations when in-person learning became unavailable. One longstanding subject is the World Embroidery Series, which has offered detailed instruction in dozens of stitches and introduction to the rich cultural origins.

The library invokes the cultural and spiritual connotations of the color blue. In an elegant dark blue–paneled space, the collection includes not only books but also drawers of buttons, a collection of swatches following the stitch patterns in Barbara Walker’s knitting treasuries, tools, and textiles. Tatter’s holdings now include treasured collections of 12 women: embroidered samplers, thimbles, darners, textiles, tools, and a luxurious assortment of fiber art books and periodicals. The Brooklyn Museum recently transferred 200 objects to Tatter, reflecting the organization’s deep and growing Brooklyn roots.

Like Tatter, our conversation combines cultural inquiry with human connection.

Treenway Silks is where weavers, spinners, knitters and stitchers find the silk they love. Select from the largest variety of silk spinning fibers, silk yarn, and silk threads & ribbons at TreenwaySilks.com. You’ll discover a rainbow of colors, thoughtfully hand-dyed in Colorado. Love natural? Treenway's array of wild silks provide choices beyond white.

If you love silk, you’ll love Treenway Silks, where superior quality and customer service are guaranteed.

Learning how to weave but need the right shuttle? Hooked on knitting and in search of a lofty yarn? Yarn Barn of Kansas has been your partner in fiber since 1971. Whether you are around the corner from the Yarn Barn of Kansas, or around the country, they are truly your “local yarn store” with an experienced staff to answer all your fiber questions. Visit yarnbarn-ks.com to shop, learn, and explore.

Peace Fleece began in a small Maine town with a mission: to produce a yarn that brings together parties from areas of historic conflict, transcending boundaries through the commerce of wool. From Russian farmers to the Navajo Nation, the original owners set the foundation for meaningful trade. Today, the spinning mill at Harrisville Designs continues the tradition of sourcing fine wool from Navajo farmers, combining it with US wool and a touch of mohair to create the unique Peace Fleece blend. Visit our website at peacefleece.com to learn more.

Fiber artist Mary Anne Wise first went to Guatemala hoping to collect local textiles and inspire her own practice. Just one visit wasn’t enough, and she visited several more times, eventually offering a class in rug hooking to local women artisans. Although the women didn’t have a rug-hooking tradition, they did have abundant material: tons of tee shirts from “donations” that are often shipped to the area, discarded, and burned. After the success of that first class, the idea of creating a cottage industry that would benefit women throughout Guatemala took hold. Called Multicolores, the project is now a nonprofit organization officially recognized in Guatemala.

The women join the program to support their families and improve their living conditions. And although many of them cannot read or write, all have something to say through the work of their hands. Mary Anne developed a curriculum of design principles that helped the women market their work in the international market. Although some are also weavers, not all of the women were producing textiles before joining the program. Drawing on family stories and cultural influences as well as their own imaginations, they design hooked rugs and other pieces that find their way to buyers around the world. Mary Anne and her coauthor, Cheryl Conway-Daly, told the story of Multicolores in a book, Rug Money.

In the United States, drawing on their love of fabric and experience in interior design, Mary Anne and a friend decided to start a home goods shop specializing in artisan cloth. Based in Wisconsin, Cultural Cloth offers the handwork of artisans not only from Multicolores but from 30 countries worldwide. Although they have sold the shop to new owners, Mary Anne continues to work there one day a week . . . and the inspiration for her own fiber art that initially led her to Guatemala has begun to rise again.

Multicolores website

Treenway Silks is where weavers, spinners, knitters and stitchers find the silk they love. Select from the largest variety of silk spinning fibers, silk yarn, and silk threads & ribbons at TreenwaySilks.com. You’ll discover a rainbow of colors, thoughtfully hand-dyed in Colorado. Love natural? Treenway's array of wild silks provide choices beyond white.

If you love silk, you’ll love Treenway Silks, where superior quality and customer service are guaranteed.

Brown Sheep Company is a four-generation family business bringing you high quality wool and natural fiber yarns. We spin and dye U.S.-grown wool into hundreds of vibrant colors at our mill in western Nebraska. Our mill has something to offer for every craft, from our well-known knitting and crochet yarns to wool roving for spinning and felting. We offer U.S-made needlepoint yarn as well as yarn on cones for weaving. Learn more about our company and products at BrownSheep.com.

Have you heard of The Woolly Thistle? We’re a brick-and-click yarn shop specializing in non-superwash, woolly wool yarns from the UK and Europe. We have fast and free shipping and you can check us out at TheWoollyThistle.com, two L’s in Woolly. (And let us do the international shipping and tariffs, so you don’t have to.)

Sahara Briscoe has a challenge for you: Do more with yarn. Knit your spinning, spin your knitting, rug hook with yarn, paint on your swatches, embroider with yarn, and question your assumptions about what your stash is for.

Working from a compact Bronx studio, Sahara can’t be easily classified under any label ending in -er except New Yorker. She spins, weaves on all kinds of looms, dyes, knits by hand and machine, crochets, hooks rugs, embroiders, designs custom fabrics for a range of clients, teaches, and writes, switching happily between them all and combining them as her interests lead her. At present, she is excited about scrappy knitting and a series of hooked-rug trivets. ”My textile life runs under two phrases: What if? And why not?” she says. Instead of staying in craft silos, where we pursue just one set of techniques at a time, she urges fiber folks to combine crafts fearlessly.

In both her personal work and commissioned work, she is drawn to crafting for home. Surrounding herself with textiles she loves, especially ones that transform some treasured stash into something useful, make her life more enjoyable at the same time they promote a low-waste, circular way of living. “For me, beautiful home textiles . . . Well, it‘s like us as women,” she says. “We have to be durable. We have to perform a lot of tasks, you know, and we have to hold up and still look good.”

“My whole design practice and textile practice is about—why can’t the everyday look beautiful?”

Sahara Briscoe’s Instagram

Treenway Silks is where weavers, spinners, knitters and stitchers find the silk they love. Select from the largest variety of silk spinning fibers, silk yarn, and silk threads & ribbons at TreenwaySilks.com. You’ll discover a rainbow of colors, thoughtfully hand-dyed in Colorado. Love natural? Treenway’s array of wild silks provide choices beyond white.

If you love silk, you’ll love Treenway Silks, where superior quality and customer service are guaranteed.

Susan Bateman started the Yarn Barn of Kansas back in 1971. She says, “Since the beginning, it's been important to us to teach the crafts we love—weaving, knitting, crochet, and spinning. Last year, we had nearly a thousand enrollments in our classes. We answered questions in store, by phone, and through email.”

When you order from The Yarn Barn of Kansas, you aren’t just ordering materials. You're supporting a business that can support you when you need help. Visit yarnbarn-ks.com.

Have you heard of The Woolly Thistle? We’re a brick-and-click yarn shop specializing in non-superwash, woolly wool yarns from the UK and Europe. We have fast and free shipping and you can check us out at TheWoollyThistle.com, two L’s in Woolly. (And let us do the international shipping and tariffs, so you don’t have to.)

Peace Fleece began in a small Maine town with a mission: to produce a yarn that brings together parties from areas of historic conflict, transcending boundaries through the commerce of wool. From Russian farmers to the Navajo Nation, the original owners set the foundation for meaningful trade. Today, the spinning mill at Harrisville Designs continues the tradition of sourcing fine wool from Navajo farmers, combining it with US wool and a touch of mohair to create the unique Peace Fleece blend. Visit our website at peacefleece.com to learn more.

In the history of wool, Spain means Merino, the legendary finewool sheep so prized that their export fell under royal control. From their Spanish origins, Merino genetics formed the basis of wool breeds around the world. The foundations of most finewools, especially in Australia and the United States, count Merino as a major contributor. Apart from Merino, the Spanish sheep carried by colonizers to the Americas transformed those societies—consider the Spanish Churro in the vital Navajo-Churro breed.

Over the last century, the wool industry in Spain has weakened, with sheep increasingly bred for meat and cheese. The once-prized Spanish wool became a burden rather than a benefit, as some wool went to compost or was even burned (sadly, a common practice in many places). In 2019, one family-owned mill that spun hearty yarn for the rug industry received a request from a handdyer looking for yarn made from Spanish wool. Seeing a new opportunity for Spanish wool, the mill’s owner decided to found Wooldreamers in 2020 to produce yarn for crafters.

Wooldreamers’ line of yarns includes wool from a number of flocks: sheep that travel along traditional shepherding routes, the rare Navarra breed, some of the finest Merino available from family-owned ranches, and the sheep that produce Manchego cheese. In addition to bringing one-of-a-kind yarns to crafters around the world, Wooldreamers provides income to the ranchers who are preserving and reviving the legacy of Spanish wool.

Weaver and fiber artist Bea Bonanno became part of the Wooldreamers story when her grandmother, who raises a small flock of sheep near Avila, Spain, encountered Wooldreamers in her search for a mill. Having worked at the landmark yarn shop Yarn Barn of Kansas, Bea has experience not only in using yarn but helping customers undertand the properties of their materials. Since taking on distributorship of Wooldreamers in the United States, she has relished telling the story of the company’s yarns and its impact on sheep and wool in Spain. “I've been lucky enough to find people who are just as excited about it as we are,” she says.

Wooldreamers US

Treenway Silks is where weavers, spinners, knitters and stitchers find the silk they love. Select from the largest variety of silk spinning fibers, silk yarn, and silk threads & ribbons at TreenwaySilks.com. You’ll discover a rainbow of colors, thoughtfully hand-dyed in Colorado. Love natural? Treenway’s array of wild silks provide choices beyond white.

If you love silk, you’ll love Treenway Silks, where superior quality and customer service are guaranteed.

Brown Sheep Company is a four-generation family business bringing you high quality wool and natural fiber yarns. We spin and dye U.S.-grown wool into hundreds of vibrant colors at our mill in western Nebraska. Our mill has something to offer for every craft, from our well-known knitting and crochet yarns to wool roving for spinning and felting. We offer U.S-made needlepoint yarn as well as yarn on cones for weaving. Learn more about our company and products at BrownSheep.com.

Appalachian Baby Design offers U.S. sustainably sourced yarns, kits, and patterns for crafting heirloom-quality gifts for the family. Their U.S. organic cotton and Shaniko sportweight wool are soft, resilient and washable–perfect for creating lasting pieces. Whether knitting, crocheting, or weaving—for beautiful creations that will be cherished for generations, start with appalachianbaby.com.

This is Anne’s Book Club, a spotlight episode of the Long Thread Podcast where we share conversations about exciting new craft titles. This episode features three new books from Storey Publishing: The Stitched Landscape by Anna Hultin, The Handsewn Wardrobe by Louisa Owen Sonstroem, and Knitting Cowlettes by Safiyyah Talley. You’ll hear a conversation with each of the authors, followed by an excerpt of some of my favorite passages. I was excited to choose each of the titles to feature, and I hope you enjoy the conversations and the books as much as I have!

Anna Hultin has so much to teach you—to stitch, of course, but mostly to see. With a background in art education and a habit of looking closely at the land around her, Anna offers concrete skills as well as encouraging prompts to develop your own relationship with where you are.

Her book includes step-by-step projects, detailed instructions for common plants, and techniques for sketching, stitching, and painting your own personal landscape. Her book gently pushes embroiderers who might be reluctant to consider their work as art toward creativity, exploration, adaptation, and staking their own ground, all within the frame of an embroidery hoop.

From Anna’s introduction to The Stitched Landscape:

This isn’t your typical embroidery book. Although it has plenty of embroidery patterns

Whether you are picking up a needle and thread for the first time or have experience as a

**Anna Hultin* is the artist and educator behind Olander CO Embroidery. She uses needle and thread to create contemporary embroideries that explore the often overlooked beauty of the subtle textures and colors of the Colorado landscape. Anna lives with her family in Loveland, Colorado.*

To make clothes that you love, says Louisa Owen Sonstroem, pick up a pencil and paper, needle and thread, and get stitching. Trained in commercial patternmaking, she knows the strengths—and limitations—of off-the-rack clothing and pattern-envelope sewing. Her new book teaches sewists to handsew clothes that seem out of reach for today’s makers: hoodies, leggings, and even a denim jacket. If that sounds too time-consuming, skill-demanding, or slow, Louisa’s book will surprise you.

The book invites you to set aside clothing designed for someone else’s body and create garments that will fit you perfectly. She calls The Handsewn Wardrobe “two books in one”: a primer on patternmaking that frees you from generic commercial patterns and a sewing book that teaches techniques for stitching garments by hand. In over 300 pages of instruction, she takes you from making a pattern for a basic tee to drafting a custom pair of jeans.

For weavers and crafters with precious fabrics, handsewing lets you make the best use of precious fabric, not only by minimizing waste but also by creating garments you will wear proudly.

From The Handsewn Wardrobe:

Learning how to make patterns is one of the coolest, most transformative experiences. You can make anything! Patternmaking may have a bit of a reputation as an intimidating, difficult discipline, but it needn’t be that way. There are so many more possibilities than limitations in this craft. And, by the way, no one knows everything about patternmaking—no one!—so just relax and enjoy yourself. Make note of the principles shared in this book and elsewhere, but lean into the gray areas and creative opportunities, too. You’ll learn just as much by messing around with patterns as by following anyone’s instructions. The more you try, the more you’ll learn.

It’s a radical, simple act to make your own clothes by hand. The tools are few, and most are relatively inexpensive. The techniques needn’t be complicated, either—with a handful of good stitches at your command, you’ll be able to construct all manner of beautiful, sturdy

**Louisa Owen Sonstroem* studied design and patternmaking at Fashion Institute of Technology. She works in technical design and patternmaking and teaches hand sewing and patternmaking classes. She also started Patternmaking in Public Places (PIPP), an outreach project to democratize access to patternmaking skills. Louisa lives in Connecticut with her family, in a house filled with board books, dog beds, and lots of fabric.*

Innovative knitter Safiyyah Talley’s first book, Knit 2 Socks in 1, offered a clever new way of knitting socks. In her new book, she offers a fresh look at neckwear with a collection of cowlettes—wearable cowl/shawl hybrids. In addition to 23 patterns, the book includes methods for designing your own cowlette, finessing fit, and yarn selection.

Besides the range of lovely designs, the joy of this book is the expansive view of knitting, offering patterns for any skill level and personal style. Simple and versatile, Safiyyah’s cowlettes beckon you to cast on.

From Safiyyah’s introduction to Knitting Cowlettes:

I like to gift cowlettes because they are quick, gender neutral, size inclusive, and very useful. There are just so many scenarios that call for one that I even gift them to myself. Wake up to a chill in the air? Pop on a cowlette. Want to dress up an outfit? Pop on a

You might be wondering, “What exactly is a cowlette?” Cowlette is a term created by innovative knitwear designer Carina Spencer and it is the lovechild of a cowl—a circular scarf—and a shawlette, or a small shawl. Cowlettes have a similar construction to a shawl, but with the wearability of a cowl. Shawls tend to slip and slide when worn, unless secured in some way with a knot or a shawl pin. Cowlettes look like shawls, but they are knit in the round, so the wearer doesn’t have to worry about them falling off. Just like shawls, cowlettes are first worked flat from the top down. Stitches are added in the form of increases until the work is large enough to fit comfortably around the wearer’s neck. The cowlette is then joined in the round and worked to the desired size and length. When searching online for cowlette patterns, you may find them under “cowls” or “shawls,” because it is a fairly new knitting term.

But the very best part of making cowlettes is how customizable they are. With the help of this book, you can easily design your own. You can control the difficulty, size, yarn amount, and gauge with very little prep and only as much math as you wish! It is the perfect project for all knitters, from beginner to expert. All you need to get started is a ball of yarn, circular knitting needles, and a sense of adventure.

**Safiyyah Talley* is the author of* Knit 2 Socks in 1 and creator of the popular blog The Drunk Knitter. She teaches knitting classes virtually and at knitting shows. Safiyyah lives in Indiana.

Storey publishes craft books for makers of all skill levels, whether you’re interested in hand sewing your own clothes, embroidering outdoors, or a knitting fun new accessory. Check out our new books in knitting, crochet, weaving, quilting, sewing, soap-making, design, and more!

Sarah Pedlow was enjoying an artist’s residency in Budapest when a museum visit changed the course of her artwork and her career. In the Ethnographic Museum, displays of traditional clothing and dowry goods from Hungarian villages showed an extraordinary variety of skills. Many of the intricately embroidered pieces spoke to an earlier time—although some had been created not that long ago.

One type of embroidery, írásos, particularly captured Sarah’s imagination. Using a straightforward open chain stitch in bold, graphic lines, the style was distinctively Hungarian, with Turkish-influenced motifs reflecting the region’s history. Although she didn’t speak Hungarian (a notoriously difficult language) and had no previous background in fiber art, Sarah was drawn to learn more about the embroidery. She eventually made several trips to an ethnically Hungarian region of Romania, where she met some of the few embroiderers still working in the technique and learned the stitch for herself. Within the community, this style is called “written” embroidery, and writing the patterns is respected as a distinct skill.

After years of traveling in the region and studying with traditional embroiderers, Sarah decided to bring others to experience what she had learned. Working with a local guide, she began leading tours to visit the museums, shops in the markets, and learn directly from the villagers who still practice the art daily.

Sarah’s fine-art work has come to incorporate stitching and textiles. Her interest in traditional fiber arts has also grown beyond írásos to include the Arraiolas stitch practiced in Portugal, another destination for her textile tours, and explorations in the embroidery of Estonia, Bulgaria, and Spain—with more destinations capturing her eye.

Our conversation made me eager to pack and needle and thread and go explore the world—you may get textile wanderlust, too.

ThreadWritten website

Treenway Silks is where weavers, spinners, knitters and stitchers find the silk they love. Select from the largest variety of silk spinning fibers, silk yarn, and silk threads & ribbons at TreenwaySilks.com. You’ll discover a rainbow of colors, thoughtfully hand-dyed in Colorado. Love natural? Treenway's array of wild silks provide choices beyond white.

If you love silk, you’ll love Treenway Silks, where superior quality and customer service are guaranteed.

Learning how to weave but need the right shuttle? Hooked on knitting and in search of a lofty yarn? Yarn Barn of Kansas has been your partner in fiber since 1971. Whether you are around the corner from the Yarn Barn of Kansas, or around the country, they are truly your “local yarn store” with an experienced staff to answer all your fiber questions. Visit yarnbarn-ks.com to shop, learn, and explore.

Peace Fleece began in a small Maine town with a mission: to produce a yarn that brings together parties from areas of historic conflict, transcending boundaries through the commerce of wool. From Russian farmers to the Navajo Nation, the original owners set the foundation for meaningful trade. Today, the spinning mill at Harrisville Designs continues the tradition of sourcing fine wool from Navajo farmers, combining it with US wool and a touch of mohair to create the unique Peace Fleece blend. Visit our website at peacefleece.com to learn more.

Eucalan is your go-to delicate wash for the fibers you love. Whether you’re blocking a shawl, freshening up handspun, or preserving a vintage knit, Eucalan’s no-rinse formula with lanolin keeps your work clean, soft, and cared for. Biodegradable, gentle, and available in five lovely scents—because your craftsmanship deserves the best. Learn more at eucalan.com.

Most of us crafters know instinctively that working with yarn, fiber, and cloth makes life better. Believing that handwork is good for our well-being has sparked memes about knitting as “the new yoga” and sold tee shirts that read, “I knit so I don’t stab people.” But feeling good while practicing fiber art is only one of the ways that working with thread adds meaning to life.

As a “passionate knitter and yarn stasher, a comparably dispassionate sewist, a novice embroiderer, and a clumsy crocheter,” Nicole Nehrig has experienced this for herself. As a clinical psychologist, she used the tools of her training to examine how women have used needlework to meet their needs and enrich their lives. In stories collected from around the world and through time, she documents how women have stitched their way not only to emotional well being but also self-expression, community, and financial reward in her book, With Her Own Hands: Women Weaving Their Stories. The book combines narrative nonfiction with observations about the shared experience of making meaning while making cloth.

In our conversation, Nicole discusses how her loves of craft and women’s lives came together to tell the shared story of women’s handwork.

Nicole Nehrig’s website

Nilda Callañaupa Alvarez on the Long Thread Podcast

Treenway Silks is where weavers, spinners, knitters and stitchers find the silk they love. Select from the largest variety of silk spinning fibers, silk yarn, and silk threads & ribbons at TreenwaySilks.com. You’ll discover a rainbow of colors, thoughtfully hand-dyed in Colorado. Love natural? Treenway's array of wild silks provide choices beyond white.

If you love silk, you’ll love Treenway Silks, where superior quality and customer service are guaranteed.

Brown Sheep Company is a four-generation family business bringing you high quality wool and natural fiber yarns. We spin and dye U.S.-grown wool into hundreds of vibrant colors at our mill in western Nebraska. Our mill has something to offer for every craft, from our well-known knitting and crochet yarns to wool roving for spinning and felting. We offer U.S-made needlepoint yarn as well as yarn on cones for weaving. Learn more about our company and products at BrownSheep.com.

The Adirondack Wool and Arts Festival is the perfect way to spend a weekend surrounded by over 150 craft vendors in Greenwich, New York. Discover a curated group of vendors featuring the best of wool and artisan crafters. Throughout the weekend enjoy workshops, free horse drawn wagon rides, free kid's crafts, a fiber sheep show, and a sanctioned cashmere goat show. Join us September 20 & 21, 2025, and every fall! For more information visit adkwoolandarts.com. Buy tickets now!

Appalachian Baby Design offers U.S. sustainably sourced yarns, kits, and patterns for crafting heirloom-quality gifts for the family. Their U.S. organic cotton and Shaniko sportweight wool are soft, resilient and washable–perfect for creating lasting pieces. Whether knitting, crocheting, or weaving—for beautiful creations that will be cherished for generations, start with appalachianbaby.com.

Anne’s Book Club is a new series of interviews with the authors of new fiber art books that I think Long Thread Podcast listeners will love. This episode features new books by Deb Essen, a frequent contributor to Handwoven and Little Looms.

Deb Essen may weave plenty of blocks and squares, but you definitely can’t put her in a box. Not many weavers would release a book about turning pin-loom squares into adorable stuffed animals just a few months before a book about a drafting method for multishaft weaving, but Deb’s curiosity about all things weaving has led her down delightful rabbit holes. (For her book Swatch Critters from the Pin Loom, she wove the whole rabbit!)

In our conversation about weaving, writing, and inspiration, Deb talked about why she’s excited about both new projects. “They’re for people who just like to weave,” she says, “and they’re curious about all different kinds of weaving things.” Listen in for a chat and excerpt from the books.

From Deb’s introduction:

Pin looms appeared on the weaving scene in the 1930s as small wooden frames with nails around

But Schacht Spindle Company’s Zoom Loom resolved all the issues I had with pin looms. The frame is flat plastic that is easy to hold, the pins are placed precisely and securely anchored, the inside edges of the frame are beveled so the weaving needle does not catch a sharp edge when exiting, and as a bonus, the loom frame has directional notations

From Deb’s introduction:

Welcome to profile drafting—a powerful weaving tool that lets us create one fabric design and translate it into many weave structures! Whether you are a beginning weaver or have been weaving for years, my intent is to open this wonderfully versatile design toolbox for you and explain how to use the tools inside.

I consider profile drafts as weaving “shorthand,” where I can quickly see the overall fabric design and then plug in the treading, treadling, and tie-up for the block weave structure I want to use.

I’ve taught prolife drafting for many years, and there are three big questions everyone has that I will answer in this book:

This book is a sampler platter of block weave structures using profile drafts. I could literally write an entire book on each weave structure, but my intention is to answer those big questions above for each weave structure and whet your appetite for using profile drafting when designing fabrics. In the "Resources" section at the end of the book, I have listed other books that are dedicated to deeper dives into the different weave structures.

All the projects can be woven on 4 or 8 shafts. If you have more shafts available on your loom, you can weave more blocks of pattern in your fabric.

Deb Essen is a well-known weaving expert and a frequent contributor to Handwoven and other magazines. The owner of DJE Handwovens, Deb teaches at conferences and guilds, nationally and internationally. She lives in Victor, Montana.

Profile Drafting for Handweavers (available November 29, 20235)

Swatch Critters from the Pin Loom: Step-by-Step Instructions for Making 30 Cuddly Animals from Woven Squares (available August 28, 2025)

Easy Weaving with Supplemental Warps: Overshot, Velvet, Shibori, and More (available now)

Schiffer Craft brings you the most important currents of inspiration and knowledge, helping you tap the resources of craft history and heritage to find new directions in learning and making. We publish to help energize and enlarge the craft world! Learn more at SchifferCraft.com.

Some spinners and weavers picture the Schacht Spindle Company’s factory as a large-scale operation churning out equipment by the hundreds. After all, Schacht’s products are easily recognized in stores, studios, and guilds around the world. Others see the handmade touches—such as the ladybug on every Ladybug spinning wheel—and imagine Barry Schacht making every piece by himself.

Although Schacht is “a tiny company in a tiny industry,” as Barry says, it has been decades since he built all the equipment himself. About four dozen employees manufacture looms, wheels, and other tools at the factory in Boulder, Colorado; some work their entire careers in the business. Barry has spent decades developing new equipment and refining old models with a new feature or a more effecient process.

Many are surprised to learn that not only does author, editor, and teacher Jane Patrick work at Schacht, but she and Barry have been married for decades. As the editor of Handwoven magazine, she didn’t advertise their relationship, but when her skills were needed in marketing, sales, and design, she joined the business. In addition to her roles at Schacht, Jane has advocated for small-loom weaving on rigid-heddle, inkle, and pin looms to involve new weavers and push the boundaries of design for little looms.

After 56 years, although Schacht Spindle Company is going strong, Barry and Jane decided that it was time for them to hand over the reins. Barry met Paul Vervoorn, the new owner of Louët, at Convergence in 2024, and he saw someone who would continue the family-owned, community-focused, innovation-seeking nature of the company. Barry and Jane had already visited Louët’s facilities in the Netherlands. The two companies announced in May 2025 that Louët would purchase Schacht, allowing Barry and Jane to retire.

In this episode, Barry and Jane share stories from their decades at in weaving and spinning—and look at what’s next.

Schacht Spindle Company

Treenway Silks is where weavers, spinners, knitters and stitchers find the silk they love. Select from the largest variety of silk spinning fibers, silk yarn, and silk threads & ribbons at TreenwaySilks.com. You’ll discover a rainbow of colors, thoughtfully hand-dyed in Colorado. Love natural? Treenway's array of wild silks provide choices beyond white.

If you love silk, you’ll love Treenway Silks, where superior quality and customer service are guaranteed.

Learning how to weave but need the right shuttle? Hooked on knitting and in search of a lofty yarn? Yarn Barn of Kansas has been your partner in fiber since 1971. Whether you are around the corner from the Yarn Barn of Kansas, or around the country, they are truly your “local yarn store” with an experienced staff to answer all your fiber questions. Visit yarnbarn-ks.com to shop, learn, and explore.

Appalachian Baby Design offers U.S. sustainably sourced yarns, kits, and patterns for crafting heirloom-quality gifts for the family. Their U.S. organic cotton and Shaniko sportweight wool are soft, resilient and washable–perfect for creating lasting pieces. Whether knitting, crocheting, or weaving—for beautiful creations that will be cherished for generations, start with appalachianbaby.com.

Eucalan is your go-to delicate wash for the fibers you love. Whether you’re blocking a shawl, freshening up handspun, or preserving a vintage knit, Eucalan’s no-rinse formula with lanolin keeps your work clean, soft, and cared for. Biodegradable, gentle, and available in five lovely scents—because your craftsmanship deserves the best. Learn more at eucalan.com.