Branch

During my MA in 2003 I visited Epping Forest near my childhood home and wrapped white acrylic yarn around the trunks of a copse of young trees. Over the years I revisited the copse and in 2018 removed the yarn. The yarn soaked up lichen and matter from the woods, creating a mottled grey lichen stiffened thread. For two years I kept this precious bundle and after gathering two branches on a woodland walk in Derbyshire decided to 3D 'print' the branches in knit. Trough trial and error I replicated the branches in hand knit using double-point needles, increase and decrease. Knowing how to make a sock was a great advantage. Carefully feeling the twists and undulations of each branch. Unwinding and re-knitting one branch dissatisfied by the accuracy of my first efforts. Yarn passing twice through my fingers in slow, puzzled learning. And, now these forms exist, soft, foldable, reminding me of snakeskin. What shedding occurred as I made? What growth?