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Sunday 17 May 2009

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.

daffodil making

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!

daffodil yarn

And other of it all piled up:

daffodil yarn

4 comments:

Liz said...

Love the fabulous daffs!

Felix said...

They're gorgeous and I love the way you derived ideas from the poem.

jen said...

Love it! What a great idea!

Lara said...

I too love the gorgeous glorious Daffs - I am also very excited to see felt creeping into the spinning. Inspired!