Today I have been working on a presentation that I will be giving to the Millstream Knitting Guild in April. The public will be invited so if you are in the Salem, Oregon area on April 9th, stop into the Willamette Heritage Center from 10-12. I will be chatting about the PNW Community Coral Reef and folks will be welcome to take a peek at some of our donations so far, pick up some donated yarn, and gather some inspiration for corals and critters.
Going back through some old photos I have of corals that I used as inspiration for pieces has been kind of entertaining. Whenever I am feeling uninspired, it helps to pull up some google images and then I start by simply recreating the shapes that I see. For folks who knit or crochet strictly by using a pattern, this can be a challenge. I would encourage you to simply look at a coral form as a series of increases and decreases. Pick a spot on the coral where you want to start and then work your way through it. If I an crocheting, I generally start in the center and work my way out. If I am knitting, I tend to work from the outside and decrease to the center. (This helps to avoid having several double pointed needles and very few stitches at the beginning of a project which I find to be a bit of a pain.) The reality is, you write the rules on how you want to do it and there are no hard and fast rules. This is why freeform knitting and crocheting is so fun! I can guarantee, there are very few other parts of our lives that let us write the rule book.
