Table of contents for Winter 2025 in PieceWork

I once spent a few weeks in the highlands village of Chinchero, Peru, while working on a book about Andean textile traditions. Each day, artisans from nearby communities would arrive to demonstrate their remarkable technical skills. Over time, I began to recognize where they were from just by looking at their clothing—earflaps on knitted chullos, embroidery along skirt hems, distinctive woven motifs in shawls. It was a powerful lesson in how clothing serves as both cultural and personal identity. Of course, this is not unique to the Andes. We see a dirndl and think of alpine villages in Germany or Austria; a sarong brings Southeast Asia instantly to mind. That spirit is at the heart of this issue—a celebration of clothing as a window into culture and place. This is…

Twelve miles northeast of Amsterdam, the village of Marken stands as a compelling example of cultural resilience and continuity expressed in its layered, embroidered dress. Once a remote island in the Zuiderzee, a bay of the North Sea in the Netherlands, Marken’s physical isolation and periodic flooding from the sea profoundly shaped its history, economy, and distinctive traditions. Marken’s origins date to 1235 when a violent storm separated the island from the mainland. That same year, monks from Friesland, in the north of the Netherlands, settled there, constructing dikes to reclaim and protect the land. This geographical separation and later adoption of Protestantism after the Reformation would define the village’s identity, fostering an insular community where customs and dress were preserved with remarkable integrity. Between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries,…

Beaded wrist warmers are my favorite souvenirs of my travels in Lithuania. I saw several antique pairs in museum collections and purchased a few pairs for myself at craft fairs and in folk art galleries. These small wool accessories warm your wrists and your heart. For winter wear, they add an extra bit of warmth both indoors and outdoors in times when you don’t need the extra protection of gloves or mittens. In summer, they are perfect to protect you from the chill of air-conditioning. Editor’s note: Donna Druchunas originally knitted this design for the November/December 2011 issue of PieceWork. As a tribute to the enduring appeal of Lithuanian wrist warmers, Katrina King reknitted the design. MATERIALS Brown Sheep Nature Spun Fingering (100% wool), 310 yd (283.5 m)/1¾ oz (50…

Påsöm is the name of a traditional wool embroidery from Dala-Floda in Dalarna, Sweden. The embroidery is so magnificent that it has found its way beyond traditional folk costumes and today adorns everything from cushions and wall hangings to bags and clothing—and it’s not just women from Dalarna who hold the needle. The technique has a colorful history, and the embroidery motifs have changed over time. As early as the beginning of the nineteenth century, possibly even earlier, simple vines and stylized flower, star, cross, and diamond shapes were embroidered on some garments. These embroideries were done freehand, and the yarns were plant-dyed in red, blue, yellow, and green. In the 1860s, soft synthetic-dyed yarns in bright colors and shades, such as pink, purple, blue, and red, were imported. The…

The Spanish word Recuerdo (memory), embroidered in black and white cotton thread, adorns a square handkerchief in the collection of the Cooper Hewitt Design Museum. A stitched bird holds a thread in its mouth, connecting the letters of the word. Below, the bottom of the letter R turns into a flowering branch on which another animal sits. The scalloped edges of the handkerchief are decorated with more embroidery and drawn-thread work. This handkerchief is piña fabric, made of fibers from the leaves of the pineapple plant, a textile tradition unique to the Philippines. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, many elite women in the Philippines wore garments and accessories made of piña, which they often embroidered with their names, initials, poems, or other words or small motifs. These special textiles…

ARIZONA Fiber Creek Suite 123 1046 Willow Creek Rd Prescott, AZ 86301 (928) 717-1774 fibercreekprescott.com CALIFORNIA Lacis Museum of Lace & Textiles 2982 Adeline St Berkeley, CA 94703 (510) 843-7290 lacis.com COLORADO Lambspun of Colorado 1101 E Lincoln Ave Fort Collins, CO 80524 (800) 558-5262 lambspun.com The Twisted Stitch 222 Walnut St Fort Collins, CO 80524 (970) 775-4844 www.twistedstitchfoco.com ILLINOIS Fine Line Creative Arts Center 37W570 Bolcum Rd. St Charles, IL, 60175 (630) 584-9443 fineline.org IOWA Blue Heron Knittery 300 W Water St Decorah, IA 52101 (563) 517-1059 blueheronknittery.com KENTUCKY LSH Creations 1584 Wellesley Dr. Lexington, KY 40513 (859) 321-7831 lshcreations.com MASSACHUSETTS WEBS - America’s Yarn Store 75 Service Center Rd Northhampton, MA 01060 (800) 367-9327 yarn.com MICHIGAN Lost Art Yarn & Needlepoint Shoppe, LLC 733 Woodmere Ave. Traverse City,…

1 A Fun Fade Tackle your next gradient project with a pencil box of yarn from Koigu. Each set contains ten 87-yard skeins of hand-dyed, fingering-weight merino yarn and is available in a variety of combinations (Shadow shown). koigu.com 2 Organized Threads Prepare for your next embroidery project with lovely wooden bobbins from InspirationCraftsUa. The bobbins are lightweight, measure 1½ inches tall, and are sold in sets of 20. inspirationcraftsua.etsy.com 3 A Helping Hand The center-pull ball winding tool from Katrinkles makes the perfect helping hand for working with yarn. Use it to detangle a pesky skein or to set the yarn up to work from both ends—for two-end knitting or for knitting multiple items such as two-at-a-time socks. katrinkles.com 4 The Power of a Rainbow Keep color theory in…

Traditional ethnic folk wear, especially ceremonial clothing, was often lavishly embroidered in bold designs and colors and is truly spectacular. I was born in Slovenia, and I particularly like Slavic embroidery. In wandering through my library of ethnic designs, I found two booklets published by the DMC Library: Yugoslavian Embroideries, 1st and 2nd Series. The author, Thérèse de Dillmont, compiled traditional Yugoslavian patterns from clothing and furnishings in many styles, stitches, and colors. In the 2nd Series booklet, I found a simple pattern on a woman’s headscarf worked in cross-stitch, backstitch, and running stitch that inspired this project. The pattern in the booklet was worked in colors approximating natural dyes. I have chosen to use bold primary colors since the design style is representative of many similar Slavic embroideries in…

Those who grew up in the 1960s and 1970s may have experienced their first encounter with historical dress and cultural costumes not through life-size garments but rather through miniature representations of them displayed on souvenir dolls. In an age when children were encouraged to collect things, such as stamps, coins, or baseball cards, “Dolls from Around the World” was one of the options. These might have been “International” dolls from the Madame Alexander Doll Company, dolls purchased at a World’s Fair Pavilion, or dolls brought home as gifts by loved ones who traveled overseas. The quality of the dolls that turned up in collections of young Americans varied wildly. The least expensive were assembled from inexpensive plastic parts held together with rubber bands or cotton thread. Their costumes were constructed…

During my recent visit to Cameroon, I was captivated by the elaborate toghu attire on display in a craft shop. Toghu charmed me immediately with its intricate and vibrant hand-embroidered designs stitched onto luxurious black velvet. I had traveled to Buea, Cameroon, from my home in neighboring Nigeria to speak to the students at HIBMAT University Institute about prospective opportunities working with textiles; I found myself a student, learning about the traditional clothing of Cameroon. TOGHU My teacher and tour guide, Marion Ngenyi, passionately explained the cultural significance of toghu, its role in Cameroonian heritage, and the differences between hand and machine embroidery—differences that play a crucial role in preserving traditional craftmanship.1 Toghu is most closely associated with the northwest region of Cameroon, particularly among the Grassfields, an area in…

Swedish Weaving Pattern Directory 50 Huck Embroidery Designs for the Modern Needlecrafter Katherine Kennedy Tunbridge Wells, Kent, UK: Search Press, 2024. Paperback, 144 pages, $19.95. ISBN 9781800922242. Cloth Stories Capturing Domestic Life in Textile Art Ali Ferguson London: B. T. Batsford, 2024. Hardcover, 128 pages, $34.95. ISBN 9781849948180. Colourful Sashiko Includes 49 Vibrant Designs, Essential Techniques and Stunning Patterns Sashikonami Tunbridge Wells, Kent, UK: Search Press, 2024. Paperback, 96 pages, $19.95. ISBN 9781800922006. Textile Portraits People and Places in Textile Art Anne Kelly London: B. T. Batsford, 2023. Hardcover, 128 pages, $34.95. ISBN 9781849947534. The Big Book of Latvian Mittens 100 Knitting Patterns and Charts for Colourwork Mittens and More Ieva Ozolina Pynes Hill, Exeter: David & Charles, 2024. Paperback, 216 pages, $26.99. ISBN 9781446312667. The Red Dress Conversations in…

The National Association of Swedish Handicraft Societies (Svenska Hemslöjdsföreningarnas Riksförbund) is a nonprofit organization composed of 90 regional and local handicraft societies across Sweden. Together they constitute Hemslöjden, a movement that has promoted intangible cultural heritage for more than one hundred years. Through education, handicraft gatherings, exhibitions, and other diverse projects, the organization strives to convey the significance of craft to younger generations. Identifying handicraft is therefore an important part of the association’s work, and its vision is that “handicrafts should be a natural part of everyone’s daily life.” To learn more, visit hemslojden.org.…

Olha Drahomanova Kosach (1849–1930) was known by her pseudonym, Olena Pchilka. Writer, ethnographer, publisher, translator, women’s activist, and community leader, Olha Kosach was a highly principled woman who instilled the authentic Ukrainian ancient folk traditions and language in her children—two sons and four daughters. One daughter became a well-known poet in Ukraine and wrote under the pseudonym Lesia Ukrainka. Olha Kosach was born in the Poltava region into a privileged family who actively opposed the oppressive political and cultural policies of the Russian Empire. She traveled widely in Europe, meeting with the leading intellectuals of the day. Olha Kosach was concerned about the Russian Empire’s ban on Ukrainian language and culture and took it upon herself to document the ancient Ukrainian folk art traditions. In 1876, Olha Kosach self-published, in…

The University of Illinois’s Spurlock Museum of World Cultures houses a significant collection of 59 miniature dolls created or collected by Julius Wallach, the German-Jewish expert on traditional European folk clothing. Each doll is about 18 inches (45.7 cm) high and wears traditional European dress from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Julius Wallach and his brother Moritz recognized that traditional clothing was disappearing from local European communities, so they decided to preserve some fashions in miniature form. They collected original fabric designs from several countries to craft authentic miniature versions of dozens of garments. The University of Illinois purchased the doll collection from the Volkskunsthaus Wallach (Wallach Folk Art House) in 1913. To see more of the miniatures in the collection, visit spurlock.illinois.edu.…