Berta Frey's essay in the first issue of Handweaver and Craftsman reviews American handweaving at the midpoint of the twentieth century. She argues that handweaving is justified as art and individual expression rather than as production competing with machines, and she criticizes the pattern-collecting habits of the 1920s and 30s and the later swing to color and texture. She urges weavers to adapt traditional weaves such as overshot (Honeysuckle) and summer and winter to modern uses. An editorial note describes the accompanying photographs of her fabrics, including threadings, yarns, and commissions.

Article by Berta Frey on Greek Lace, a twisted-warp (leno) technique found in Greek handwoven towels and bedspreads from the collection of Florence E. House. It describes the Greek weavers' freedom of design, then gives simplified directions for weaving it on a tabby shed, covering twisting with a pick-up stick, heavy pattern shots, odd numbers of fine tabby shots, and designs charted on cross-section paper. Illustrations show specimens (birds, ducks, grapes, a large bedspread-like cloth) with a draft and design figures. The scan ends with a Questions and Answers column by Mary M. Atwater on rusted and bent heddles and reeds.

Berta Frey's article shows how the Colonial overshot pattern Honeysuckle can be woven in many ways beyond the standard overshot treadling. She covers bound weaving on opposites, four-shuttle color shifts, Italian weave, Halkrus (honeycomb), Crackle, Summer-and-Winter, Spot and Lace Bronson, Mattor warp-faced rep, and a six-harness colored warp border method. Treadling directions, yarn and sett suggestions, a page of drafts and three illustration plates of samples accompany the text.

Berta Frey describes a hand-manipulated leno (gauze) technique inspired by Peruvian and Guatemalan weaving, worked without doups on an ordinary twill-threaded loom, and it also works on two harnesses. She explains how to pick up and twist warp threads by hand, how to plan designs in units of two squares, and how to lay in pattern blocks, comparing the method to the Spanish 'Red-de-Telar' loom-net. Examples include a fish motif from a tapestry belt and a llama design after D'Harcourt, shown in a sampler photographed in two illustrations and in four figures.

Berta Frey describes how to weave a modern twin-size cotton bedspread in a Swedish lace (turned) structure using Lily's Floss. It gives threading drafts for 40-, 30- and 20-inch looms, with the spread built from panels joined by decorative seams, plus tie-up, treadling units, finishing, yardage and shrinkage test results. A close-up photograph shows the finished spread.

An issue of Lily Mills' Practical Weaving Suggestions in which Berta Frey explains how to weave initials and monograms into lace-weave cloth. It covers picked-up Bronson (Bratton lace), square and diagonal Brooks Bouquet (backstitching on the loom), and a combined Brooks and Danish Medallion technique, with notes on sampler making, yarn choice, sett, and charting letters on squared paper. It includes a simple practice design, photos of a sampler, towels and a blouse, and ends with Lily yarn color and size listings.

Berta Frey's article describes adapting summer-and-winter weaving to modern design by combining blocks and picking up parts of the pattern on a four-harness loom. She explains two samplers (X and Y) woven in stripes, giving lever sequences for tabby-bound and opposite-bound weaving, woven singly or in pairs, and how to bring the shuttle out and back into the shed to pick up blocks. She discusses designing from a draft versus fitting a draft to a design, using examples such as a bath mat and rug, a Monk's Belt foot stool upholstery, and suggestions for rug, luncheon set and silk-and-cellophane materials. Pages include drafts and pattern figures and photographs of the sampler cloths.

Berta Frey describes the weaver's trick of transposing threading and treadling drafts, so that a draft turned on its side gives the same cloth. She uses it to sample colored warps on a weft-yarn sample loom and to weave warp-faced bands and belts on huck threading in place of slow weft-faced bound weaving. Samples give yarns, colors, sett and the 112-end belt warp, with drafts and photographs of the samples. A short author biography closes the piece.

Berta Frey's article encourages beginning weavers to learn technique by weaving useful kitchen items, starting with a dozen dish towels. It gives a practice warp recipe (bedspread cotton alternating with 20/3 colored crochet cotton, sleyed at 20 ends per inch, 8/1 slub linen weft, set in Rosepath) and advice on fibers for absorbency. It also covers place mats made from unusual materials and fashionable aprons, including lace-weave aprons in Bronson or leno and ways to finish the gathers and ties. Photographs show a kitchen, aprons, and towels.