Freeform crochet......

..... the most fun you can have while still breathing.

I had to take a trip to the 'big city' yesterday.  Well, not really the big city, the medium-sized city.

So of course I had to pop into 'spotlight' for a bit of a peek.

And guess what I came out with?

Ta-dah!!!!!

Surprise, surprise - another book!

I think it was this bag that caught my attention......

The colours are much nicer than the photograph.

Now, what do you think you're going to need for freeform crochet/knitting stuff?  Yarn stash of course!

So I'v been ferreting through the drawers and came up with this......

...and this....

..... and this....

When I do 'normal' crochet, I pretty well stick to 8ply wool, but this stuff requires different weights, textures, colours etc.

Now, I had JUST gone through the process of being ruthless with my yarn stash. I cleaned out my cupboards last week, and decided that seeing as I hadn't touched the yarn in that cupboard for YEARS, it had to go.

I had thrown the bag into the trailer - destined for the tip.

It had been sitting there for at least a week.

In the rain.

But......

....luckily it was in a zipped bag!

Ah well, so much for being ruthless.

Along with different yarns, you should have a supply of various sized hooks and any other bits, bobs and embellishments you can find.

So armed with yarn and hooks and book, I set to the task of mastering freeform in a night (joke).

Needed to go to the font of all information first though - off to search crochet blogs for tutorials.

I found this one - Carla's Freeform crochet scarf tutorial.  It is well worth having a look.

Don't you love that statement - "add yarn and crochet anywhere"

Anyway, the idea seems to be that you do what you like.

Start with some foundation chain, maybe about 20, but it's up to you.

Then you crochet back into the foundation chain, anywhere, any-yarn, any-stitch.

(Are you starting to hyperventilate?  Like, really what do you mean 'anywhere, any-yarn, any-stitch'?)

Change colours, and stick the hook back in anywhere.  At this stage, I was basically using DC's, half trebles, trebles (UK terms).

Then I started to get braver and did some scallopy bits.

And then I got really fancy and added in some eyelash yarn.

No need to worry what stitches you do with that - you can't see them anyway.

Then came some granny stitch....

......and so on.  You get the picture.

Now, I have to mention, that the way I'm doing this scarf/thingy is not the way it is in the book. 

The internet tut does it this way, just continuously adding on to the starting point in one big piece.

The book, however, makes up little palm-sized pieces, called 'scrumbles', then joins them together to form one piece at the end.

You know what they say,

"In olden days a touch of stocking,

was looked on as something shocking,

now heaven knows,

Anything goes!"

Well, it does in the world of freeform at least.

cheers

Fi