Three Designers Give You Big Ideas

Do you like the projects in the Winter 2025 issue of Handwoven—but also have the feeling they’re not exactly right for you (or your stash)? No worries!

Six designers in this issue have ideas for how to adjust their projects to fit your preferences. They want to help you Make It Your Own.

Let’s take a closer look at three of these projects.

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Audition Colors

Marcia Toms’s Secret Passage Scarf uses a doubleweave tunnel for tucking one end of the scarf to keep it closed—without the need for knots or extra wraps around the neck. Her clever design was inspired by a knitted scarf she owned years ago.

While her version is woven in a pair of blues, plus magenta and a bit of yellow, she made yarn wraps to show four other color combinations—pastels, warm shades, cool shades, and neutrals (shown above with her original colorway at top).

Which version appeals to you? Or would you explore winey reds and purples, the world of greens—or something entirely different?

You’ll find the Secret Passage Scarf project in the issue or in the project PDF (free for All-Access Subscribers).

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Consider Fabrics

A honeycomb project in her “someday” folder and a large container of fabrics in her studio led Andrea Williams to develop her Making Waves Runner.

She wondered whether narrow fabric strips would work for outlining the honeycomb cells and decided to give them a try. After plenty of trial and error, she settled on the best direction to cut those strips (along with approaches to fiber content, cutting style, and strip size).

Here’s a taste of what she learned, just in case you have your own container of fabrics to use up.

• Each fabric has its own personality and quirks—some delightful, some not so much. What looks and feels great flat may be ho-hum when scrunched, and vice versa.

• If you’re using a mix of fabrics, test to verify that they are compatible with one another in weight and composition, and don’t skip prewashing them lest you run into shrinkage differences.

• Sample, sample, sample to determine the ideal strip width for your chosen material.

• To create weft stripes, alternate patterned fabrics with solids or with other patterns, used singly or in groups.

• Alternatively, separate strips in groups according to color or value and alternate them randomly with strips in a neutral color.

• Sew lengths of random fabrics together along the straight grain, and then cut strips on the bias for a crazy-quilt effect.

You’ll find more of her fabric, warp and weft color suggestions, and weaving tips in the issue or in the project PDF (free for All-Access Subscribers).

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Experiment with Honeycomb

Malynda Allen’s Garden Path Towels use a monk’s belt threading. After she wove towels with four variations on the monk’s belt theme (at right above), she tried a honeycomb treadling on the same warp. She found lots of potential areas to experiment with the honeycomb version, including:

• Use colored yarn to outline the honeycomb cells or try a contrasting variegated yarn within the cells.

• Use three or four rotating weft colors for the cells and one color for all the outlines. For example: Use color A for cell 1, color B for cell 2, color C for cell 3, color D for cell 4, and color E for all the outlines. Repeat.

• Weave 1 row of cells in color A and 3 in color B. Repeat. Balance the design by ending with color A.

• Change the cell heights. Use 2, 4, or 6 picks for the interior of the honeycomb cells. Be consistent—or vary the height throughout the project as desired.

Malynda also includes suggestions for using the draft to weave baby blankets—or bath towels. You’ll find them in the issue or in the project PDF (free for All-Access Subscribers).

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More Big Ideas

And here are the other three projects in the Winter 2025 issue that include suggestions to Make It Your Own.

• Misty Mountains Runner, by Dana Lutz: Use different pattern or tabby colors

• Blueberry Waffle Towels, by Claudia Tokola: Change the towel size

• Birds of a Feather Scarf, by Alison Stewart-Guinee: Improvise the twill treadling

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If you’ve made any Handwoven projects your own, please tag your posts #handwovenmagazine so we can all enjoy your work!