MYSTERY CHALLENGE 2005 / SPRING CHALLENGE 
Out of the Dead Wood Springs the Green - Ruth Marler
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I had two or three scrumbles lying around that suggested leaves and so my piece began with a very literal 
interpretation of what happens  in the season of Spring: out of the dead wood springs the green.

I’m not quite sure what happened then. I knew that I didn’t  want  bunches of yellow crochet daffodils or 
crocuses so instead I decided to anchor Spring to the season that preceded it. Spring is the season that 
mediates between the harsh bleak winter and the colour and warmth of summer. 
Just as the shoots and tendrils sprout and start to take over 
the more sombre colours and surfaces, so I was taken over
by my piece.
When my back was turned it decided that it wanted to be a waistcoat 
and I was powerless to stop this incredible force. I even lost control 
over the stitches and shapes.            
From and around empty spaces, growths of “buttonhole stitch” raced. Some of these growths were zig-zag shoots and some were curved, the colours changed from brown to orange to yellow to green. They twisted and interlinked.
Like a gardener I walked around what was now a three-dimensional garment attempting to tame nature but as fast as I tweaked and trained it sprang out in another direction, in another texture.
In my hands and on the crochet hook, this waistcoat twisted and 
stretched. First progressing in this direction, then with a sudden spurt 
it grew away in another colour, another shape, another texture.

Out of the dead wood, sprang the green!