For one reason or the other I haven’t made much this Summer and my crochet seems to have been put on the back burner. My wish list of projects, on the other hand, just keeps growing.
With moving home, I have spent a lot of time thinking about interiors and what I want our house to look like. Some things we are not changing, the magnolia walls, for example. They are newly painted so there doesn’t seem much point. Instead, I have been thinking about adding colour in in different ways.
Take our bedroom. We bought the Malm Ikea furniture from the previous owners, it’s pretty inoffensive and the walls are magnolia. Together this provides a backdrop for crochet blankets and complimentary accessories.
My husband doesn’t say much when it comes to our house but he has always said he would prefer no flowers in the bedroom. Fair enough. So I have bought white bedding and white curtains and some fab orange lamps from Habitat. I love the retro look of them and they go well with all of my blankets. Anyway, this is all leading to my crochet rug! Actually it is more mat size but it fits just between the bed and the wardrobe. Here it is..
I made it with Tek-Tek fabric yarn (bought on Ebay UK for £8.40 per large roll) and a 9mm crochet hook. This rug took less than two rolls. The rug measures 70cm across and is densely crocheted. A larger hook and a more doily like pattern and the yarn would go much further. I made this rug in an evening so it is super quick too.
I followed a basic circle pattern until I had reached the size I wanted (10 rounds) and then I crocheted a round of double crochets.
My last two rounds were made as follows;
Penultimate round: Chain 6, miss next two stitches, slip stitch in next stitch, repeat to end, slip stitch to first ch6
Last round: Slip stitch to centre of first ch6 from last round, chain 6, join to the centre of the next ch6 space with a slip stitch, repeat to end, join with a slipstitch and fasten off. Your rug is finished!
The rug may turn up at the edges a bit but I found sitting on it whilst I was making it helped and at the end, I went round and manipulated the edges to lay flat. The yarn is really easy to work with but here are a few tips you might find useful:
- The yarn is recycled and it does state on the packaging that the colours can vary and it is not one continuous strand. I only found one short section which was a different colour to the rest and I cut that section out.
- I found the knots where the strands had been joined to be thinner than the rest of the yarn so I cut the knots out and just joined as if I was joining a new colour.
- One section of yarn was really thin compared to the rest, it was noticeable when I was crocheting, so I just cut it out. I don’t think I cut more than about 80cm out in total including knots and the discoloured section.
- The yarn is heavy so after a few rounds I lay it on the floor and crocheted from above. After a while I was able to sit on it as I crocheted. Take regular breaks as this can be sore on the back and hands.
- Ends are really easy to ‘sew’ in on the back. The stretchy nature of the fabric means that you can just tuck them in by hand.
Please ask if you have any questions about my rug. I’d love to hear about any similar projects you have made or other uses for fabric yarn.
On a completely different note, I had a return nomination from Zeens and Roger for a Liebster Award. I don’t really have anyone else to nominate but here are my responses to the questions. I love reading the answers from other bloggers to questions like these as it feels like you are getting to know the person behind the craft. Anyway, here goes..
- What did you have for tea last night? Sweet and sour chicken and rice, wish I could say I made it all from scratch but I can’t!
- What are you having for tea tonight? Prawn curry, friends are coming over and cooking for us. My kind of cooking.
- What are you doing at the weekend? Walks and pubs.
- As a child, what did you want to be when you were a grown up? A teacher and that’s exactly what I became.
- What was your first job? Working in a garage when I was 16 for £1 an hour!
- Name a book you read again and again. Jane Eyre, about twice a year.
- What do you collect? Ladybird books, enamel badges, pressed glass.
- Mastermind subject? The Tudors.
School starts back next week which means we will all be getting back into a routine of some sort. Hopefully when things settle down I will have more craft time. Here’s hoping.
x
Buttercup and Bee 