romancing the wool

what can I say?

wool—

—is glorious.

watercolors¹ too.

also wildflowers²—

—and the woods.

and gosh, while we’re at it, why not admire a few things that do not begin with the letter w?

hands, for instance.

and hearts.

also lupines—

—lilacs—

—laundry—

—and feral greens.³

and what about skeins?

and seeds?

and this stalwart spindle⁴—

—which, wound as it is with wool—

—spins us back to the letter w—⁵

—so we can wade in the water (or wallow was the case may be)—

—and walk once more in the woods.

1. five glorious ochres hand made (maiden rock colors also gathered and ground), by my amazing friend jodi gear who, when not tromping around montana picking up interesting colored stones, is painting, throwing pots and building ocarinas from local clay— some of which can play an entire octave! she’s a miracle of creative inspiration.

2. arnica

3. which, being feral, refuse to play my alliterative game.

bottom to top: dandelion greens, plantain, collard raab (what overwintered collards produce in the spring; it’s sweet, tender and delicious beyond words, raw or cooked).

4. weighing in at 11 grams, this jenkins kuchulu is tiny, fast and wildly different from the relatively languid 17 gram wren i was working with this winter. same fleece, same preparation method, both cross arm spindles, super different yarn (and not only skein size as you can see a couple of photos up).

5. and also on from nouns to verbs