Sunday, January 22, 2012

Scrumble #45


Here is my latest scrumble, finished last night.

It started with the strip of crochet bullions in the centre, which I had just unearthed at the bottom of a suitcase I was repacking. I didn't have any other grey yarn on hand, so decided to create a purple scrumble around them....but in the light of day I'm not altogether sure if that was a particularly good idea!

This morning the grey doesn't tone with the purple nearly as well as it did in the night light...so I may need to add a few other grey bits to the surface sometime, when I come across some more yarn in that tone.

The bullions had originally been worked in a straight line, using a smooth cotton yarn. To give them a better 'flow' I intentionally skipped stitches in some places, and added extras in other spots, as I worked the other yarns along the sides. There are a few knitted sections done moss (seed) stitch using a bamboo yarn, but the rest is all crochet, mainly in wools and mohairs, plus a few little areas in silk and angora. To add dimension to the piece some of the crochet stitches were worked 'around the post', and slip stitches were occasionally worked on the surface, too, for the same reason.

The scrumble was made in one piece, by picking up and joining on the stitches each time a new yarn was added (i.e. no sewing was involved). To give it a 'completed' look I finished off with a couple of rounds of short crochet stitches, being careful to increase or decrease wherever it was needed so that the piece remained flat.

As I think I may have mentioned on the blog before, bordering a piece like this is something that I rarely do for scrumbles that are going to become part of a garment, but I don't mind doing it to 'frame' a smaller artwork.

This is because putting a 'fence' around a lot of different fibres is often asking for trouble further down the track...even if the stitch count appears to be perfect when the piece is newly completed, if it contains a lot of different yarns you could find that some are likely to relax and expand a bit whilst others might shrink and contract slightly (even just in normal wear, let alone when being laundered), and this could cause the fabric of the garment to distort and go out of shape.

8 comments:

  1. Beautiful scrumble and I like the colours

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  2. It looks lovely, I do admire crochet especially when it looks great, mine can be a little unpredictable. lol,

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  3. I like the way you put a "fence" around this scrumble. I think I´ll try that some day. Already see a picture inside my head...

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  4. Very nice scrumle.You are making beautiful things!

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  5. Gorgeous - I've just discovered this kind of crocheting and I'm super excited about trying it! I love this one with the blues and purples. I discovered your name and needlework at Barnes & Noble about a week ago.

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  6. tu réalises des merveilles tu es une véritables artiste une artiste, je commence le point bullion, j' aimerais si tu as le modèle de tes fleurs qui ressembles a des potirons j' aime beaucoup tes modèles bises dane

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  7. I really like this one. Love the colours!

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  8. Using purple around the grey was a fabulous idea! There are different shades of grey, and the purple is a perfect choice with this grey. :-)

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