Niche / Devil's Urn Revisited

I made some Devil's Urn fungi last year after observing many on a weekend at Beaver's Bend State Park.  To be truthful, I wasn't ever that happy with how it turned out and decided to make it again as a component of the indoor installation for Niche.  One interesting aspect of Devil's Urn is how the brownish hue on the outside of the cup almost seems transparent.  The deep black exhibited on the inner cup really shows through - it's almost like the outer brown layer is just dusted on.  I tried using color work to show for this the first time around, but it just didn't look quite right.  This time I used some lace weight yarn with a larger needle to knit an outer cup that would appear really open and let the inner black layer show through the stitches.  I think this meets my expectations much better!

Learn more about Niche, an exhibit in Martin Park Nature Center for the month of April.

View more phases of the 52 Forms of Fungi Series.

52 Forms of Fungi || #14

When we had just arrived at the cabin for our weekend in southeast Oklahoma several weeks back, I was poking around in the woods with my camera and happened upon this really unusual, leathery, cup shaped fungus.  After a little research I came to find out that this fungus is called devil's urn, and it is one of the very first species to appear in springtime as the forest comes out of dormancy.  They really are a sight to see, with the brownish exterior and smooth, black interior.  The blend in very closely with their environment and are often found on downed tree limbs.

This structure was knitted as part of my 52 Forms of Fungi project, through which I will knit a different type of fungi for every week of 2013. Check out more of the forms from this project.