Scrumble #42 - it's been a long time coming!

Where did the year get to?

Last night I decided that it was definitely about time I added another scrumble to my blog...but on looking I discovered that I have only posted here once all year!

So much for the initial idea of blogging about a scrumble weekly!!

Oh well, at least I am back again with a new creation...and sincere hopes that I will get a few more done over the next few weeks (and hopefully months).

This scrumble started with a few tiny bits and pieces that had been kicking around in a bag in the cupboard, literally for years. There were five small sections, each with one or more areas of knitting, each with a couple of segments of crochet added directly onto their sides. I imagine that they had been samples that I had made during a workshop or display long ago, as I was demonstrating a few basic stitches to class participants or exhibition onlookers - but for the life of me I honestly can't remember exactly where or when...

Because they weren't necessarily the sorts of colours that I would have chosen to combine, I decided to draw the whole thing together using some oddments of black and blackish yarns. I didn't want the dark colours to totally outline or overpower the other colours, so I used short sections of random chain stitches to connect the pieces.

Once the pieces had been joined, a bit more crochet (including a few bullion scallops made with a variegated single-ply green yarn) helped to complete the design.

Hopefully you'll see me back with another new scrumble very soon...I'd cross my fingers, but it's rather hard to crochet or knit with them twisted up like that ;- )

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'!

Scrumble #40

Sometimes it just happens that freeform knitting and crocheting has a mind of its own. No matter what you try to do, some scrumbles seem to be intent on becoming something you were not expecting.

About half way through creating this particular mauve and purple piece I turned it around to add something to another side, and suddenly discovered that it was morphing into...

...a bear in a hat!

The crocheted lurex ruffle had become more like an eye than a flower, the knitted cable was now looking very snout-like, and the bullion clusters seemed to have positioned themselves just where ears and a nose should be.

Since that definitely hadn't been my intention, I started to think about the best way to detract from the impression I was getting...but each time I looked at the scrumble from a certain angle that blasted bear was still there, winking at me.

So don't laugh! In the end I just gave up and went along with it, adding a bobble for an eyeball, a crochet edging around the 'collar', and some purple bouclé ribbons streaming from the back of her hat.

Hope you like her ;-)


.

Scrumble #39

Scrumble #39 actually started with a couple of small crochet doodlings that were made quite a while ago, but were only recently rediscovered amongst my stash - these were the little yellow area of Tunisian crochet near the centre of the scrumble, and the oval shape with spiral embellishment that is underneath it, near the bottom.

When I decided to use the yellow cotton Tunisian section in this scrumble, I knew that it would be too light a colour. Not wanting it to be too much of a contrast, I immediately wove a length of olive green ribbon yarn under the bars, so that it would blend better with all of the other autumn-tones yarns I was selecting for this piece.

I added a couple of knitted sections to both of these 'starter' pieces before sewing them together; then, once they were joined, I continued outwards in all directions, using tiny scraps of yarn to create other random motifs. Most of these small sections were finished off just because I was about to run out of that particular yarn.

The 2 green leaves and both of the flowers, plus the wool bullion circle (top left) and the round linen piece (top right, partly hidden under the bent bullion flower), were done last; these were all made separately before being attached (some with crochet slip stitches, the others sewn).

scrumble #38 - finally

I'm finally back to blogging my scrumbles again...and I definitely do intend to keep it up on a fairly regular basis for a while, at least over the next couple of months, until I reach #52 (a year's worth, even though it will have taken me more like 2 years to complete them all)

I really love creating small freeform pieces, so this one contains 2 small hearts, one knitted and the other crocheted from the same dark lilac twinkly man-made yarn. They were created separately, and both were surrounded by a row of crochet using a very soft and slinky recycled sari yarn - then they waited patiently for the rest of the scrumble to evolve.

The main, central part of the scrumble was made as one piece, with random sections added onto the initial red knitted area... then the hearts were joined on using crochet (slip stitches worked from the back to join the top one, but 4 short sections of chain stitch for the lower, pendant one)

Along with the twinkly stuff, some of the other yarns used include wool (a lovely chunky single), cotton (various mercerized), silk (a soft but still 'crunchy' handspun mulberry silk from India) and acrylic (an ancient find in my stash - must be over 20 years old)

Reds and oranges always seem to be really difficult to photograph well, but the detail should show up a bit better once you click on the thumbnail.

(...and I'm already working on #39, so it shouldn't be too long before I post here again)

scrumble #37

OK, I finally got around to doing my next scrumble for the blog. Sorry it took so long!

This one used just 3 yarns, and is all in crochet.

The central circle was created first, one round of treble stitches (US dc), surrounded with twice as many again in the 2nd round. Two different colour-ways of the same glittery thread were used for this, and all the other 'round-ish' motifs.

Each of the other oval or circular shapes had to be made separately (since they started in the centre), but when the second one was made I joined it to the first, and then later joined the others to each other, just using crochet chain stitches that were worked in a lime green wool yarn.

I then surrounded the piece with more lime green chains, added a round of slip stitches into those chains using the copper thread, to begin to create a 'frame', and then added another round of slip stitches into the previous round, this time using the black thread.

I will try to get the next scrumble done soon ;- )

scrumble #36

the knit stitch...

...and nothing but the knit stitch!



what more can i say?