Ok so, disclaimer: due to the fact that I have ADHD, I have no patience when it comes to waiting to post things in an evenly spaced-out manner. That means on this blog we’ll likely be getting clumps of posts for several days, contrasted with long periods of silence where I don’t post anything for months. Just to let you know what you’re getting into!
I know that sounds self-deprecating, that’s something I’m working on, too. I’ve found it’s helpful for me to speak openly about my mental health struggles to reduce the amount of shame and stigma around them, but I’m still learning how to do that without just making it into a self-deprecating joke. Baby steps, right?
Anyway, smoothly transitioning into the actual topic of this post…
A while ago, I wanted to make a floor mat for my kitchen sink. The problem was, I didn’t have a loom big enough to weave even a tiny rug on. So I took to Pinterest to search for other options and I discovered the magical world of crocheted rag rugs.
This (below) is my first crocheted rag rug and I’m so so proud of it! It’s based on this tutorial from My Poppet, which I highly recommend if you want to make one yourself. Their instructions are super clear and helpful.
“DO tread on me,” amirite?? lol rug jokes
I’ll be honest, this first rug was a bit of a struggle, as is often the case when I’m trying a new technique. I had to rip back my stitches way too many times, until I finally got a feel for the proper yarn tension. Once I got the hang of it, though, it was so satisfying to watch that rug appear under my hands. And now I get to use it every day in my kitchen, and it makes me so happy.
I actually originally made this for the bathroom, but decided it was too thick as a bathmat and wouldn’t dry quickly enough. Luckily our kitchen is the same color scheme, so it still matches.
So that brings us to my current rug project.
I’ve been wanting to make another rug for my studio room that I recently cleaned up. During the last two years of the pandemic, the studio functioned as a disorganized disaster of a storage space for loose yarn, two-year-old wedding decorations, and Amazon boxes I kept meaning to recycle, but I’ve finally gotten it back into a usable state.
Adrian loves being allowed in the studio, now that it’s finally clean.
To celebrate this achievement and encourage myself to actually use the space, I bought a little chair and ottoman for the room. I just googled what you call an armchair without arms and it’s apparently a “slipper chair,” so that’s cute.
I decided a rag rug would look and feel lovely under the chair, and I had some old sheets to repurpose, so I set about making myself a new rug.
I started out planning to do another rectangular rug, but later decided a circle rug would look better in the space. Luckily, My Poppet has another tutorial for making a circular crochet rag rug.
With this style of rag rug, the yarn color ends up being what stands out the most, and the color of the rag fabric just barely peeks through. I took the time to sketch out a color study on my iPad to see how the yarn colors would work together, which made me feel super professional.
This was before I decided on a circle shape for the rug, but the colors remained the same in my final version.
After deciding on the colors, I went to Joann’s to pick up my favorite cotton yarn, Peaches ‘n’ Crème.
Side note: this is my all time favorite yarn to make dishcloths/washcloths out of. One of my yarn-buying guidelines is “if I don’t finish this project or if I have a lot of yarn left over after, will it get used?” and with this yarn, the answer is always yes. So I’m perfectly justified in buying it, no matter how much unused yarn I already have, right? Right.
Also just fyi, nothing in this post is sponsored or anything. I just like to keep track of what products I use, in case I want to revisit or recreate a project in the future. Ok back to the post…
Once I had my yarn, I cut out my rag strips from an old bedsheet. Then it was finally time to start crocheting!
Here is the beginning of my rug.
My wittle fabric millipede…
The tricky part with this rug is spacing out my increases properly to keep it from curling up. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, and are curious, I’ll try to explain in non-crocheter terms, but feel free to skip ahead if you don’t care about the technical stuff.
When you crochet a rug, the goal is to make it lie flat on the floor, with no bumps or lumps or edges curling up. The way to do this is by increasing the number of stitches in each round. “Rounds” refer to the rings of stitches, which you can think of like rings in a tree trunk. The piece starts with the smallest ring at the very center, and builds outward, with each new ring needing to be bigger and bigger.
To make your rings bigger, you need to increase the number of stitches in each subsequent ring. If you don’t increase enough, the piece will start to curl up into a bowl shape. And if you increase too much, it begins to bunch up and wobble. Making a flat circle is a constant balancing act, trying to stay in the middle of those two unwanted outcomes.
I hope that made sense! If you read this and aren’t a crocheter, feel free to let me know if it was helpful or interesting or not, I’d like to know.
Moving on, here are a couple of pictures of the rug in progress.
If I stop here, it’s the perfect size for her. So tempting, but I will press on… I’m planning to crochet her a basket when I’m done with this rug, which I think she’ll like more.
I’m still working on it, it’s just taking forever because the bigger it gets the more unwieldy it is to work on. I’m not sure what I’ll do when it outgrows my table… I guess just work on the floor?
Also, I’ve been watching Supernatural while I crochet this baby, and I have to say it’s a fantastic show to craft to. Engaging enough that I want to keep watching, but dumb and predictable enough that I can have it on in the background and not miss any important details. I’m up to season 4 and the show is really growing on me. If you haven’t watched it and you want to, be aware that season 1 is absolute trash and it made me stop watching the show entirely until a friend told me that’s the worst part of the show and it actually does get way better.
I’ll probably talk about TV shows on here pretty often because I basically always have something on in the background while I’m working on a tedious, repetitive project. I say tedious and repetitive with love, by the way. There’s something so calming and comforting about a mindless project where I can just zone out and stitch while I watch fictional dudes kill vampires or whatever.
Anyway, thank you for reading! Leave a comment if you want to, say hi, tell me about your day. Or tell me what shows you like to have on in the background while you work or cook or clean, because I can always use more TV recommendations.
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