Before I got out of bed this morning, the days had already been getting shorter. Then the hour that was taken from the world last spring was restores in the middle of the night while I slept I awoke very rested but with less time to finish the two crochet sugar skulls I was working on to add to my Day of the Dead yarn bomb collection. While I finished both of them when it came time to put them up, there was only enough daylight left to install four crochet sugar skulls onto my back fence:

Installing four yarn bombs is not the quickest of work, and as I hadn’t prioritized raking the ground outside the fence, in addition to putting up the yarn bombs, I also had to dodge some very small—but very sharp— stickers. I was, for the most part, successful in that endeavor, but it added a level of caution to my work that slowed me down a bit.

What it didn’t slow down, however, was the foot traffic that goes past my back fence, and several neighbors stopped and talked to me as I put the installation up, asking me how long it was going to be up, or simply expressing appreciation for what is becoming my ever changing back fence crochet yarn bomb display.

This is my third year putting up a Day of the Dead crochet installation on my back fence. Each year I finish some new bit or piece for the installation, and each year I learn a bit more about this holiday which is, at it’s core, a celebration of the lives of those who are no longer, and each year, I continue forward, one stitch at a time.