Sprang Explorations

With Sharon Wichman

This program is part of Handwork 2026, presented by Craft in America

Sprang is an ancient and mostly forgotten technique for creating elastic cloth two rows at a time.

Some cultures, including the Hopi, used sprang for sashes, belts, bags, or hairnets into modern times. Sprang remains have been uncovered in archeological sites around the world, including a sprang shirt at least 600 years old that was found in an Arizona cave.

Join us to get your fingers in the yarn and start braiding parallel threads on a frame. You will start with a pre-warped frame and learn all the steps of creating cloth and sewing it into a small bag.

Once you have the basic technique, you will have two options: A) make a larger bag with the basic stitch; or B) learn more sprang stitches while making a series of smaller bags.

Sprang bags work well for cell phones, fiber projects, dice, wallets, and any other small items.