in a mad spin

The guild of which I am a member (The Oxford Guild of Weavers, Spinners, and Dyers) is running a context, and naturally, I had to enter it. (Longtime readers will remember that the last contest I entered resulted in this.)

The theme of the contest was to create something based on Wordsworth's poem Daffoldils, so I chose to base my work on these lines:

A host, of golden daffodils;

Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine

And twinkle on the Milky Way,

They stretch'd in never-ending line

My never-ending line being handspun yarn!

So I got to work, first dying the wool (using food dyes and tea), felting daffodil heads, and spinning green "stem" yarn.



I then sewed together the trumpets and petals of the daffodils using vintage embroidery thread (that's a whole 'nother post), and plied - three plies of spindle-spun and one of embroidery thread bearing the daffodil heads - four plies altogether.

Here's the result, of which I'm fantastically proud!



And other of it all piled up: