Scrumble # 41

ok, so i'm really not planning on making all my future scrumbles resemble anything in particular, but since i said last time that i had one that was sort of wanting to turn into a fish, i decided to go with the flow with this one, too ;-)

it started out ages back when i made the knitted 'body' (which was worked in short rows: 2-colour stripes in garter stitch with a dull and a glittery yarn). then i added various bits and pieces of freeform crochet directly onto the edges of the knitting (and a couple of sections onto the surface too). the crochet was done using some wool boucle, a smooth cotton, some ribbon, a stretchy cotton/lycra yarn, and a hand-dyed one that looked like a cotton/acrylic mix.

the unusual openwork area where the fish's 'head' should be was created using a crochet cord of the kind that is usually worked as the foundation for Romanian point lace.

once i had created a length of cord that was about 8" long, i twisted it around onto itself and stitched it together wherever it touched. then i added rows of crochet slip stitches to the edges of the cord, to give it a 3-D edging. the tail was added last; just simple fringing, using 2 different flat ribbon yarns.

and before you ask the answer is...no, it isn't actually underwater...though i hoped that the background would help to give the photo that impression! i finished working on it yesterday, and then photographed it sitting on top of some pigface (carpobrotus - a succulent plant) that was growing wild on a sand dune near Monterey, CA; i thought it made great 'seaweed'!

Week 24

I finished this week's scrumble a few days ago, just in time to display (along with all of the scrumbles from the previous weeks) at my stand at the Sydney Craft & Quilt Fair. The display is getting a lot of interest, and I hope to be able to continue showing the growing range of scrumbles at other shows around Australia throughout the year.

This one is a mixture of both crochet and knitting; there are some knitted slip stitch areas plus some knitted ribbed sections, together with many different round-ish crochet motifs, and some ruffles. The yarns were in various thicknesses - from a rather chunky, looped blend to some quite fine synthetics; they included mostly mohair or man-made glitzy stuff, along with some wool and a few scraps of cotton.

The purple flower motif was finished with a little embroidery to give definition to the petals, as they didn't appear to show up so well once the other crochet had been added around that particular motif; then I also finished off the centre of this flower by stitching on some commercially made floral art stamens.

Week 8

This week's scrumble surprised me by looking rather like some sort of little animal in the photo; I hadn't actually noticed it as I was working, but this way up it certainly has a face! Lots of textured wool and yummy looped mohair; it started with the pale stripey knitted section; lots of wrong-side crochet was added, then a bit more knitting, and more crochet.

week 6 - running a little late

Just realized that I had finished my scrumble for Week 6, but I didn't have good net connection when travelling last week, and then I forgot to post it when I got home...so here it is...looking a little dark with all its brown woolly knitting and deep blue crochet. I liked the way the rib shifted itself about sinuously to accommodate the added cup-shaped embellishments, which were crocheted around some (yfwd, work2tog)-eyelets in the knitting.
size approximately 20cm (8") x 15cm (6")

Week 5

Even though it's mostly blue I feel as though I want to call this week's scrumble a Purple People Eater (...blue people eater definitely doesn't have the same ring!) I think it is because the little inverted domes on short crochet cords, a la 'Romainian point lace', remind me of the eyes of space creature drawings from my youth.
size approximately 20cm (8") x 18cm (7")

my week 2 scrumble

My 2nd weekly scrumble. This one started with a length of french knitting (I-cord), randomly twisted around and then stitched and embellished with a contrast yarn where it touched or overlapped. Small areas of freeform crochet were added around the edge, using short scraps of many different red yarns. The crochet bullions were made with an unusual, velvety artificial suede cord - sometimes difficult to work since it stuck to my fingers and had absolutely no stretch whatsoever, but it worked nicely for bullions when I persevered since it was a round single strand.
size approximately 28cm (11") x 14cm (5.5 ")