Monday, December 26, 2011

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 ;- )

Friday, January 14, 2011

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'!