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Coat of Many Scrumbles
Or just stop worrying and sew the dang things together
Reviewed By Katherine Vaughan

“In February 2006 Prudence showed the International Free Form Crochet List a picture that she had taken the previous year of the [Pennsylvania] Guild’s coat, and challenged the discussion group to create their own joint freeform garment."

“This is their story.”

So begins this lovely little book. It is a narrative of a collaborative project, an explanation of what scrumbles are, and a photo diary of many of the pieces that went into the four finished objects. This is not a pattern book – if anything, it is an “anti-pattern” book. Instead of walking you through the steps of creating scrumbles, Ms. Mapstone carefully explains the theory behind things like color choice, assembly, and overall design.

A scrumble, by the way, is a small, modular piece of (in this case) crochet work that springs from the imagination and hook of the artist without the aid of fixed instructions or even planned structure. There are several books on the process of scrumbling (also called “freeform” crochet) available from Amazon, and I recommend you check one of these out if you are interested in learning the process of creating scrumbles, motifs, and finished garments.

If, however, you are looking for inspiration, Coat of Many Scrumbles is the book for you. I enjoyed simply looking at the 73 pages of “Some of the Scrumbles”, many of which are accompanied by their creators’ thoughts, explanations, and even poetry. In this section of the book you are introduced to many (possibly all) of the participants in the project. They range in ages from children to great-grandparents; they include women as well as men, and represent at least three continents of stitchery.

This is a lovely gift or coffee table book for crocheters, in particular. It is relatively small – approximately 8in (20cm) square and 100 pages long – but packed with photos of scrumbles, motifs, the four items (a coat, shawl, scarf, and umbrella!) that they made, and the Pennsylvania Guild coat that started it all. Unfortunately, since the book is self-published, it is difficult to find. Ms. Mapstone’s website, Knot Just Knitting, suggests US readers ask their local yarn store to order copies from Unicorn Books; Australian users may be able to order it online.

Katherine Vaughan has been knitting for a remarkable 20 years, and has been designing her own accessories and knitwear for the last 5. She is a CYCA Certified Knitting Teacher, and enjoys showing off to people on the commuter bus just what you can do with two sticks and some yarn. Blog: http://knitwithkt.blogspot.com.