Saturday, January 14, 2012

Scrumble # 44

This scrumble is perhaps not quite as unusual as the last one, but still it was interesting to make.

I used lots of leftovers in pinks, oranges and greens, and most of these bits were totally used up in the process, as I only had a tiny amount of each of the yarns when I started it.

In real life, even though I have used both orange and pink yarns, the colours tone in much better than they appear to do in the photograph. For some reason the orange area on the right appears to have more yellow in the picture, and therefore looks more harsh than it actually is!

There are some natural fibres (wool, mohair, cotton and mulberry silk), some recycled Indian yarns (these were rayon, not silk), plus some synthetic chenille, a glittery eyelash and 2 types of man-made ribbon.

Some of the yarns were fairly new, but others had probably been in my stash for at least 20 years; a couple were the leftover bits from yarns I had received in an online group exchange a few years back.

There are 4 small areas of knitting, and the rest is crocheted. Even though both of the mohairs were bouclés, the chenille was softly textured, the eyelash and recycled silks were 'fringy', the wools were either slubby or hand dyed, and I used the smoother mercerised cottons for fancy bullions stitches, the scrumble seemed to still be lacking something until I added a few areas of surface crochet at the end, to give it a little more life.

As usual, I welcome your comments.

9 comments:

  1. You are bussy!!! Love this one!!!

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    1. thanks, Janet; and I love the recent photos on your blog, of your yarn bombing in the snow.

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    1. thanks, Nanette. am looking forward to seeing what you come up with for the hanger exhibition, too

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  3. Prudence, when you mix natural and synthetic fibers, do you ever use these type of scrumbles for clothing items? If so, how do you clean it? I love your work and you have inspired me quite a bit over the years - I have a stash that is begging me to get back into doing something with it but I'm worried about the care and maintenance of a garment using such a mixture of fibers.

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    1. Yes, Eileen, I mix all sorts of fibres in my garments. So long as the freeform fabric is made so that it is fairly stable, and each area in any one yarn is kept pretty small, and providing the stitches go fairly randomly in all directions, my finished garments always hold together perfectly happily so long as they are gently hand-washed.
      More detailed care instructions are in the last chapter of my book, ‘Freeform: serendipitous design techniques for knitting & crochet’
      ...and just in case anyone reading here is interested in my books, they are available through my Etsy and Craftumi shops – links in my profile info on the right ;-) !!

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    2. Thanks! It's hard to find your books anywhere else, of course, so thanks for the links as well - haven't heard of Craftumi, so I hope you're not getting me into more trouble, here! :)

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  4. Hi. A couple of years ago I bought one of your books and got very inspired. I have made some sweaters both for adults and for children, and som "coats" for old handbags. I have also made a workshop here in Denmark in freeform techniques and plan to do some more. The only problem is: Soon I have no more space for the yarn....

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