Emily Davis-Hale

Mood Board: Autumn 2026 – Sericulture

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Mood board: Autumn 2026 – Sericulture

Proposals due by: September 1, 2025

Final work due by: March 1, 2026

Got something to say about silk? We sure hope so because we’re planning a big silk – sericulture – issue for Autumn 2026, and we want you to share your tips, experiences, techniques, and anything else you love about working with this amazing fiber. 

Do you spin silk by itself? What methods have you found work best for spinning silk? What about the differences between spinning different kinds of silk, such as Bombyx or Muga? What about spinning silk from different preparations, such as silk hankies, bricks, laps, caps, or directly from the cocoon? 

Silk is frequently blended with other fibers, so we want to hear all about blending. Which fibers do you find work well with silk (including protein and plant fibers)? How does the percentage of silk in the blend affect the final yarn/project? Does silk strength have an impact when blended with delicate fibers? Do you have tips for spinning a silk blend to make sure the silk stays blended and doesn’t separate from the other fibers during spinning? 

What kind of fiber prep do you do for silk? What tools do you use: combs, hand cards, drum carder, blending board? What about cutting silk as part of fiber prep? How do you create mawata (silk hankies)? How do you card silk to avoid neps and noils? Or when might you want to use neps and noils in your yarn? 

Silk has such a vast, rich history. Can you tell us about the development of silk or explore the history of the Silk Road? What about all the military uses for this material, such as parachutes during World War II? Silk features in various folktales as well, and we’d love you to share some of those stories. 

What about experimenting with silk? How can you make sure to get the drape and sheen silk is typically known for in your yarn and project? What about minimizing wear and abrasion? Is it about prep, drafting, twist, adding plies? How about silk’s durability, such as using it as a replacement for nylon in socks? What about warmth as a property of silk? What about shrinkage? How much twist does silk need? How can you make silk elastic? We have so many questions and can’t wait to see the explorations you come up with. 

What about dyeing silk and any special considerations when dyeing it alone or as a blend? What are the vulnerabilities silk might have, such as damage from exposure to sunlight? What type and weight of spindles work best for spinning silk? Do you have experience raising silkworms?  

What about weaving with silk? Does it make a difference if it is used as the weft or the warp? What about using it with another fiber? Do you have a weaving pattern you’d like to design using silk? What about knitting or crochet? Wouldn’t you love to design a gorgeous pure silk shawl? How about using a blend, such as silk and cotton, for a top or vest? What other design ideas do you have to feature silk? 

Proposals are due by September 1, 2025. You’ll hear back from us in October 2025, and final articles are due March 1, 2026.   

Submit your proposals here!
Emily Davis-Hale

Mood Board: Summer 2026 – Purpose

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Mood Board: Summer 2026 – Purpose

Proposals due by: June 1, 2025

Final work due by: December 1, 2025

Although spinning up a gorgeous skein of yarn seems like a project in and of itself, ultimately most handspun yarn is used to create something else. So how do you spin with a purpose in mind? We want to hear about it! 

What crafts do you use your handspun yarn for? Knitting? Crochet? Weaving? Embroidery? Macrame? Rug making? Mixed media art? Each one can have specific needs for the yarn, and we want to explore those qualities in this issue. 

What makes a yarn a good knitting yarn? What are some changes in that yarn to make it better for crochet? Does it make a difference if you’re using knitting needles, working on a knitting loom, or cranking a sock machine? Does Tunisian crochet have the same yarn needs as crochet? 

What about weaving? What are the qualities that work best for the warp vs the weft? Do you want to use different yarns if you’re using a rigid heddle loom vs a table loom? What about tablet weaving? 

Do you use handspun for embroidery or visible mending? What kinds of yarns work best for those crafts?  

When you have a specific project in mind, what kinds of questions do you ask yourself before you start spinning? How do you determine what characteristics a yarn needs? What are those characteristics? From the technical (twist per inch, ply structure, wraps per inch) to the yarn qualities (drape, shine, warmth, sturdiness, loft), how do you know what decisions to make? 

What about repurposing? Do you use recycled materials in your spinning? Have you used handspun yarn to upcycle or modify something already made? 

Tell us about your spinning community. Do you have a group that spins for a cause or a charity? 

What about tools? How have you used something else as a spinning tool or used a spinning tool in an unusual way? 

And this issue wouldn’t be complete without some patterns. We’re always looking for knitting, crochet, or weaving patterns, but we’d like to see an embroidery pattern or another craft pattern for our readers to make with their own handspun. 

Proposals are due by June 1, 2025. You’ll hear back from us in July 2025, and final articles are due December 1, 2025. 

Submit your article idea now!
Meagan Condon

Mood Board: Spring 2026 – Experimental

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Mood Board: Spring 2026 – Experimental 

Proposals due: March 1, 2025         Final work due by: September 1, 2025 

Let’s break out those lab coats and safety goggles and try out all those spinning “what ifs” you’ve always wondered about. This issue is about experimentation, and we want you to explore the possibilities within fiber and spinning that you’ve always wanted to examine. This isn’t a time for writing about what you already know – it’s a time to test hypotheses and see what happens. 

What parts of spinning have you always wanted to delve into? Maybe you’ve wondered how much ply twist can go into a yarn before it starts to bias or when a singles yarn biases. Or maybe you want to test the strength or abrasion of woolen vs worsted yarns or between different numbers of or types of plies. 

Does pre-drafting really make your yarn less consistent? If you tear a batt into rolags, does that have the same effect as making individual rolags? Is it possible to card really long fibers? What’s the minimal length of fiber that makes sense for combing? How far gone can a braid of fiber be before it can’t be spun? 

Is spinning woolen yarn really faster than spinning worsted yarn? Does the length of the fiber impact chainplying? Is there a difference in spinning from the tip or the butt of a lock? Does the weight of the spindle actually impact the diameter of the yarn you spin? Is EZ Spin cotton actually easier to spin? How much difference does it make for a worsted yarn if you spin short backward vs short forward? How does plying from both ends of a ball impact the yarn? 

Do cabled yarns really make cables pop? Does 2-ply yarn really make more lacey lace? Do chain-plied yarns really abrade quicker because one ply is going in the opposite direction? Is tension setting your yarn actually bad when using it for knitting, crochet, or weaving? Is a hard finish really better for woolen yarn? Does steaming your top actually reactivate the crimp? Does steaming yarns work as well as wet-finishing? 

We can’t wait to hear what experiments you want to try out! Proposals are due by March 1, 2025. You’ll hear back from us in April 2025, and final articles are due September 1, 2025. 

Submit your article idea now!