Knitting and Crocheting Combined

I'm glad to see more TV shows on with both knitting and crocheting. There is a station called Create TV that shows how to do something like cables with knitting and then shows how to do something similar with crochet. It you are going to be working with your hand and with yarn anyway, it doesn't make much sense not to learn both. Once you know both there are so many more things you can make. And it speeds things up in many cases. For example a crocheted purse handle is much faster to make than a knitted idiot cord handle. And it's easier to crochet around the edge of a veil than to knit around one.

There are many books out on knitting and crocheting edgings. If you are tired of boring t-shirts for example, you can cut off the collar and cuffs and crochet around them instead. You can also crochet edgings around handkerchiefs, dress hems, pocket edges, and the tops of socks. Have fun exploring.

Witty Knitting

My friend sent me this very cool 'witty knitting' site. http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/9809

This is definitely the year of the knitting and crocheted cupcakes, intestines and bottle hats. What is the zaniest thing you've knitted or crocheted?

I'm working on a faux rubber chicken. Or would that be a faux faux chicken? I'm also crocheting a squid.

books=ideas

While I was browsing Barnes and Noble I noticed that new freeform books have come out. So if you haven't looked for a while, you might want to go see for yourself.

I don't call them Scrumbles.

I don't call them Scrumbles because that term was coined years after I began doing this.

When you grab some yarn and some needles or a crochet hook and start making fabric using various stitches you can create original and exciting new things.

I'm more used to calling this organic crochet and knitting, but the current trend has renamed it Free Form and called the pieces 'scrumbles'. I call my pieces Jigsaw Puzzles, because each piece is joined to other parts until enough fabric is made to create a garment or a purse or a pillow or something tangible.

This is a lot like abstract painting with fibers instead of paint. I consider myself a fabric artist.
I made my first garment (a floor length robe for street performing) in about 1989. I didn't have internet access until 1995 so I'm afraid I don't have any photos of it. If I ever find it in storage, I'll be sure to post a photo. I'm not even sure I still have it. Like many things in life, we would have documented them better if we thought they'd be important milestones later.