Wednesday, November 30, 2011

The House Scrumble

Scrumble-Along  

Free Form Crochet

Join me in an online Scrumble making frenzy of crocheting freedom and enjoyment.



Rules -

  • You start and finish whenever you please.
  • You can do just one, or a couple, or all, of the scrumbles
  • You can do them in any order you like
  • You can alter and change the stitches whenever you want to
  • You use whatever wool. yarn, or thread you have to hand
  • Feel free to do your own thing


My most important Rule for Free Form Crochet Scrumbling is this:-
  • Adapt, change, disregard, add, adjust, customize, harmonize, modify, turn, change colour, reject, change hook size, use weird or unusual thread combinations......... (do you get the idea yet?)
I'd love to see photos of scrumbles you create from this "Scrumble-Along" event. Let me know where I can find your photos.

Scrumbles do not usually have instructions or a pattern to follow as they are meant to be totally innovative, unique and have a "free-form" style.
I have included the stitches I used to make my scrumbles only as a guideline for you to follow as much or as little as you wish.

 You do not have to follow my instructions exactly as written. Feel free to alter, change and modify to suit yourself.

  The House Scrumble
 
  
These instructions are using English crochet terminology. I have included the American crochet terms at the end of the article for your convenience if you should need it. 
Abbreviations key is at the end too.
 Three colours of yarn are needed for this scrumble. 
1. a Cream Aran wool    2. a Dark Peach very bubbly acrylic    3. a Navy Blue 4-ply

 Using my cream colour wool. Start with a foundation chain of about 24.
You can either work your own favourite shell stitch for this part, or my sample (below) is as follows:
Row 1: 1 dc into 3rd ch from hook, ch1, 1 dc into same st.
Repeat the following *Miss next ch. 1 dc into next ch. Ch1. 1 dc into same st.* to end of row. Turn.
Row 2: Ch 3. Repeat the following *Miss next ch. 1 dc into next ch. Ch1. 1 dc into same st.* to end of row. Turn.
Continue for about 8 rows. Cut yarn and finish off.
When making your scrumbles nothing is exact, so feel free to make your piece wider/shorter/longer/smaller.
I have included the ruler in my pic to give you a guide for a reasonably good size scrumble.

 Turn the piece "on end" to make the roof of the house.
(Sorry I forgot to take a photo before I added the blue yarn so you'll have to pretend it's not there, lol)

Attach second colour to the top right corner of the cream.
Dc in the end sts of the cream to end of row.
Note - sometimes when using a thicker wool than the first yarn you may have to reduce the number of stitches across the row to allow for the extra thickness of the yarn. 
On all subsequent rows decrease a st at beginning and end of each row until you are left with one st at the point of the "roof". Cut yarn and finish off.
 Turn the piece on it's side again. Attach third colour to top right corner of cream.
Row 1. Ch3 (counts as 1st tr st). 5 tr in each of next 5 sts. 
*Ch 3, miss next 3 sts then 1 tr in each of next 6 sts* repeat to end of row.
Note - you can continue stitching across some of the "roof" rows.
Row 2. Continue as before with 6 tr sts in each of the previous row of trebles and ch3 again before the next 6 trebles, to end of row.
Row 3. *6 tr (as before) then ch1, 1 dc around the chains of the previous 2 rows 
(this "link stitch" means putting your hook in the gap created by the ch3 of the first row. It joins the rows together and looks a bit like a bow-tie). Ch1.* Repeat to end of row.
Row 4. Repeat row 2.
Row 5. Repeat row 2.
Row 6. Repeat row 3.

You can repeat rows 4,5, & 6 again if you like.
Cut yarn and finish off.
 I like to have some areas in my scrumble pieces that are quite "flat" like this scrumble for three main reasons:
  1. it gives the eye a resting place on a busy piece.
  2. it can be a place to create a feature of surface crochet or embroidery.
  3. it is a great place to add charms and embellishments to the final piece.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^~~~~~~~~~~~~~
If you want to use American terminology you will have to change my stitch names for the following:-

 UK........................................USA
dc (double crochet) .............. sc (single crochet)
tr  (treble)............................. dc (double crochet)



Universal
sl st (slip stitch)
ch (chain)
st (stitch)
sts (stitches)
 

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