Fiddleheads in Wool and Velvet

Fiddleheads, 26” x 24”, #4- to 6-cut wool and hand-cut velvet on linen. Designed and hooked by Brigitta Phy, Sebastopol, California, 2016. 

Fiddlehead ferns are young ferns just starting to uncurl from their winter sleep, and are named for their resemblance to the finial at the end of a fiddle. 

Growing up in Vermont, I have fond memories of foraging for fiddleheads in the early spring. Fiddleheads are edible and quite a delicacy after a long winter with no fresh greens! My mom would steam them and serve them with butter and salt. They were a delicious special treat and just thinking about them brings me back to our house on the hill in the middle of rural New England.