About Handweavers
Handweavers, as it has been fondly known for years, is currently in its third cycle of ownership and second physical location since opening its doors in 1973.
The following summary of Handweavers history was drawn together for Yarnmaker magazine in 2016. Historic details came from personal accounts, written by various Handweavers’ staff and owners, that are either held in Handweavers archive or have been published in:
Warp & Weft (London Guild of WSD Newsletter); Issue 235, 236, 250
The Journal for WSD;J230, J237
A Brief History
Handweavers was established in 1973 by four friends, Lore Youngmark, Mike Halsey, Raie Barnett and Nancy Lee Child. They recognised the need for a shop, gallery and teaching centre for both professional and hobby weavers, spinners and dyers in the London area; each of them brought their personal talents to the enterprise. Their shop front at 29 Haroldstone Road, Walthamstow became a gallery with finished items for show and sale. Other rooms in the premises housed looms and spinning wheels for teaching, plus supplies for sale. As the years passed, the gallery aspect diminished and the shop became filled by an ever-growing selection of yarns, fibres, books and equipment. True to it’s founding vision, it continued to be a friendly nurturing place for spinners and weavers - their go-to place for knowledge, support and supplies!
When Nancy (the last of the four friends) announced her intended retirement, a palpable ripple was felt throughout the London WSD community - and beyond. Happily for all, Wendy Morris, a passionate weaver, stepped into the breach along with her husband John. Together they found and transformed premises at 140 Seven Sisters Road into what, in 2009, became Handweavers beautiful new home.
Having learnt to weave at Handweavers, Wendy understood the value of such a resource to the hand-weaving community. Under Wendy’s direction the Handweavers yarn selection continued to grow, encompassing a host of fascinating and often difficult to find yarns, which were made available in small sampling quantities. In addition to programming an extensive range of workshops and regular classes, she built a flagship two-year weave study course.
Again, ripples were felt in 2015 when Wendy announced that she was looking to retire…
The next (and current owners) Dawn and Alan Willey took over at the ‘helm’ of Handweavers in April 2016. When they took over two of the Handweavers team had worked for Nancy at the original location! Since then the Handweavers team has steadily evolved as life moved people in various directions, however enthusiasm for weaving and related textile crafts has remained at the core of what we do. Over the years we have striven to ensure that spinners and weavers of all types, can find the supplies, knowledge and inspiration they need to nurture and enhance the enjoyment of their crafts.
Today
In June 2025 Handweavers is embracing a new adventure as we relocate to Verwood in Dorset - no small undertaking to pack up the stock and equipment here! Our teaching studio and equipment showroom will be located in the centre of Verwood. Going forward it will afford us the opportunity to share our wonderful library of books and textiles as we plan to create a Handweavers Studio study centre in addition to our varied workshop programme.
Meanwhile our web shop will continue as normal with orders despatched as quickly as possible. Even when relocated customers will still be able to contact us via the usual phone number and email address.
Once the dust has settled on our move and a sense of organisation returned we will look forward to welcoming you to open days at our stock facility for in person shopping; we recognise that some things work best when you can see and feel colour and texture… we might even be able to arrange by request small group visits for a workshop and retail… as they say, “watch this space”, we are excited to move forward.
April 7 2018 from Alan on Vimeo.