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A scrumble is an improvised piece of knitting or crochet. I recently discovered that there is a whole world of “freeform” out there from this wonderful blog.  This discovery led me to try out a scramble of my own:

And then this led to finding a supportive Facebook group called “Freeform Crochet World Group.”

I had actually come across a chapter on freeform written by Prudence Mapstone in a book, Crochet Masterclass.  Then through luck, it came up that Prudence has a sale until the end of the month that if you download her now out of print book on freeform techniques, you get another download free.  It does take a while to download this material but it is worth the wait as it is a great starting point with techniques, yarn choices and ideas on the construction of garments packed with pictures of her own amazing work.

The pictures show a lot of crochet over the past few weeks and right now a return to my beloved stranded knitting. The knit pattern is the newly-released Papil Beret by Donna Smith on Ravelry.

I need tulips and flowers right now as I have been poorly for some time and then had a setback. It has been a few visits to the emergency room and hospital stay and lots of attacks day and night, very little sleep.  I have a diagnosis of severe asthma and have been struggling about a year now.  The positive news is that on Monday I will go away on a residential asthma rehabilitation in Sigtuna, north of Stockholm.  I even get a “sjukresa” (sick-travel) taxi to take me door to door since I haven’t been able to go out and about much at all.  It is not the easiest time with the warm weather, pollen and my bronchial tubes react badly to those smokers who puff  on every street corner, platform, bus stop and so on.

So, I have been signed off sick, sitting at home, sometimes feeling sorry for myself but mostly taking the opportunity to be creative while I can.  I honestly would be going mad now if I had not had my crochet hook, knitting needles and yarn by my side!

The projects you see pictured are quite eclectic but include the scrumble, my own improvised tapestry crochet bag, a cube cat by Happy Berry Crochet, more purses from the Etsy pattern here.  I started making purses sticking to the pattern, but then made small changes along the way.  Then I made a purse using a centre piece overlay  design from Lilla Bjorn Crochet.  I began with the first rounds from her Circles of the Sun CAL (square number 2) and then started to build up and shape the purse using my own guesswork. I crocheted the base together instead of sewing it and it gives it quite a pleasing and sturdy shape:

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Then I took the step to try to compose my own overlay, a little granny square:

It looks like Tatsiana of Lilla Bjorn, the master of overlay, has come up with another beautiful pattern design.  So much inspiration!

Looking back, it has been quite a tough time but it has also been a creative one!  Looking forward, I will be packing my suitcase tomorrow to embark on my asthma rehabilitation. I will be hopefully ready for the challenges ahead but accepting that I can’t fire on all cylinders (I also have CFS/ME.)  Either way, there will be a considerable amount of yarn on standby for the time in between training and learning:

Hope these links are useful and that you have time to get creative too!
Wish me luck!