Yesterday, I awoke to fourteen of the sixteen panels I needed for the Day of the Dead crochet installation/yarn bomb that is my current front burner project. I still had two square panels yet to crochet — and one of them with a lot of color changes, but after an early morning cup of coffee to fuel my work, eventually I needed to crochet just one more square:

So I got more coffee and continued:

And while it sometimes felt like the day was slipping away, eventually, I got all of the squares done, the ends tied and trimmed (you don’t weave them in for this kind of work) and was ready to join them:

The joining seemed to take forever, but this morning, after taking my dog to the veterinarian for a routine exam, I finished joining the last long seam and was ready to put it up:

I had spent some of the previous evening (when I was not crocheting) scouring the internet for tips on how to install a yarn bomb. I found some advice, but most of it centered on covering a three-dimensional object (say a bicycle, tree, or chair) with a two-dimensional (ish) piece of crochet.

After having worked on Olek’s Nina Simon piece in Raleigh, this past October, I started to think I would need to build an armature of some sort, which made the whole thing feel out of reach, but then I reminded myself that I hadn’t come this far to give up, so I found the email address of an accomplished yarn bomber, and I wrote what I hoped was a polite email with a request for any ideas she might have about how to install a flat piece of work on a flat wooden surface.

Fortunately, she not only had an idea, she took the time to share it with me, and after a quick trip to get the staple gun (and staples an staple remover) I would need, I got to work, and shortly before sunset, I had my first yarn bomb installed:

I can’t explain in words how empowering it felt to put the piece up.

All of the doubts that had plagued me as I crocheted evaporated as I wrestled to staple the piece into place. I didn’t have time to think about whether it was good enough or if people would like it, and it is these moments, when I am at one with my craft, that I feel the power it imparts, one stitch (and one staple) at a time.