Crafting Poetry

A couple of months ago, when I was just getting to grips with the world of blogging, I stumbled across a rather interesting idea for a challenge. At the time, I didn't want to commit, because I'd already given myself a set of goals for the year and didn't want to go overboard. As it happens, my goals were rather short term, and I have smashed my way through them quite successfully in the last two months.

I found my mind turning back to the challenge I'd discovered, with a more serious intention to actually get involved and have a go. Of course, it's a monthly challenge for 2011, so I'm a bit late to the game!

The challenge is called Crafting Poetry, and is the brainchild of Sara over at Lazy Knits and Purls. The basic idea is that you use poems as inspiration for your craft, and create things that represent/are based on the poems you've chosen.

She introduces the idea on this blog post from December, and there is a Ravelry group for those taking an interest. Each month, she sets up a linky widget on her blog to collate everyone's efforts, and there is a giveaway incentive to take part too, with a random entrant from each month winning a small prize.

I'm not in it for the prizes, and I certainly don't have the time, energy or money to do one-a-month. I don't know that many poems!

The original list of suggested poets is derived on which poets have their birthday in each month, but you don't have to stick to the suggested if you have better ideas.

Anyway, I'm sure you're wondering, if I'm not getting into this seriously, why I'm telling you all about it? Well, today I started work on my first poetry-inspired project.

The poem that inspired me was itself inspired by the turning of the season, and the flowering of spring bulbs.

William Wordsworth's I wandered lonely as a cloud. I cannot help but think of it every time I see clumps of daffodils at the roadside. Especially today, when we were driving home from the supermarket. A whole row of them just the other side of the park railings, all nodding and dancing in the breeze, just as Wordsworth describes.

I wont quite be recreating the "host" of daffodils from the poem though! I think that would be a step too far. Then again, what I have chosen is going to be pretty involved.

Yes, it's my filet crochet project. I've chosen this old filet chart, originally from 1919, published in Book of Filet Crochet and Cross Stitch, Book No 6. I have no idea how long it is going to take me to complete, as I've now got eight WIPs on the go, and even less time to dedicate to crochet now I've started up on my ACCA courses again! Hopefully the real daffodils will still be in bloom when I finish it.

I'll only be doing one repeat of the pattern; I'm not after a table runner, I want a pretty piece of filet crochet I can put in a frame and hang on my wall. As both J and I are Welsh, it will be a very appropriate decoration for our home.

I'll keep you up to date with progress each Wednesday. If you want to see what the other's are up to, subscribe to Sara's blog for the latest updates on the Craft-a-Poem 2011 challenge!