This is a challenge of sorts - can you totally knit (no crochet) a freeform scrumble? Scrumbles in freeform seem more amenable to crochet techniques. So this began with an attempt to produce an approximately palm shaped piece of work using only knitted stitches.

It was decided to keep the colour palette basically monotone - black and white with some cream and shades of grey. My stash has a large collection of odd balls of black - all small bits and no two alike. This seemed a good place to both use these up and highlight the subtle differences in shades of black.

Scrumble 1: Began as part of VHOC COM 2 September 2014. Began with a central lace motif. I decided to use part of the counterpane pattern from Imbolc - just the central lace star - a very traditional lace counterpane motif. Knitted this in 4ply white yarn on 3.75 mm dpns beginning with Judy’s magic cast on. Framed this in black 8 ply garter stitch and knitted a pointed section of brioche stitch. Cast on sideways in sockweight cream using 3mm needles for a meandering cable along one side. On the other side garter stitch bands in variegated black, white, grey and a touch of mint acrylic using a 4 mm circular followed by black and white feathers. Then crown stitch in a bright white. At about this stage, I realised I had made a giant eyeball… Garter stitch edging in the variegated yarn again. This has ended up larger than palm sized though. Dimensions - 27 cm long and 20 cm wide after blocking.

The first scrumble has inspired an idea for what this is going to end up being though. It is going to be part of a picture (a la Flat Fox), with knitted scrumbles stretched over a canvas and I think it is going to know be a face of a cubist type (Picasso?).