Tuesday, July 06, 2010

Bill's coral reef

Memories are made of this.

Yesterday marked the third anniversary of Bill's passing. I could hardly believe it. He had been gone three years. The first two years were so hard, but through the support of friends and families and through counseling I have come to live with the grief and have turned the grief into positive memories and have been able to find joy in life again.

And the past year has been just that. Joy.

And the memories of Bill have changed. They are now wonderful, happy memories. The wonderful memories of 17 happy years we had together.

And I am crocheting those memories into a coral reef for him.

The Smithsonian Institute in Washington DC is putting on an exhibit later this year called the Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef Exhibit and they are calling crocheters around the area to contribute. The idea started in Australia as a campaign to raise awareness of the danger to the fragile coral reef and it took off in countries around the world. And now it has come to the nation's capital.

I am making a reef in Bill's memory.

Actually, Bill I a reef now. He is part of the Eternal Reef. Bill was an avid diver. We went to the Great Barrier Reef for our honeymoon. What a fitting tribute.

This is what I got so far. Here is the base:

And I started on one little one:

The base is made with Cascade Pastaza. This little coral head is crocheted with sock yarn, two strands held together. I dyed the yarn with Wilton food coloring! It was a dyeing experiment. This is free-form crochet. No pattern. Crochet as you go. Fun.

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