Wool Wheels

By Elaine Verdill

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Elaine Verdill – “Wool Wheels”

                                                                                    Take the plunge
                        Head first into the rich lanolin
                                    Twenty gallon bags of many wools, waiting

                        The three day workshop:
                                    A roomful of women and fleece
                                                Spinning wheels set, a teacher from New Zealand

                        To craft woolen and worsted
                                    Short draft, long draft, twists to
                                                Crimp and staple—
                        The wool cards are plied, combs straightened and
                                    The ditz comes to play—
                        Cute as a button in horn, center holed for the finishing top—
                                    As fiber is spun on hypnotic wheels
                                                                        Mingled talk and laughter

                        We plunge, hands first into the skeins of warm water
                                                                                    Pull out strands of wet yarn
                                                Into the outdoors, draped O’s on the bushes
                                    A calligraphy of branch to weave

– Elaine Verdill