I'm not sure exactly how I made the jump from shopping bags to rag rugs, but that's how the obsession morphed. I guess I thought that if I could handle making a bag, a rug couldn't be that much harder. Not sure how sane that rationale was, but I knew I had to try.
I watched tons of youtube videos about rug making. I looked through lots of flickr accounts of rugs people had made. I saw knitted, knotted, braided, toothbrushed, and crocheted rugs. Talk about overwhelming. I knew knitting was out. Braided seemed easy since I knew how to braid, but it seemed too time consuming, first you had to braid then sew the braids together. By this time Christmas was fast approaching so I had to find a quick and easy way to make them. I nixed the toothbrush rugs because I'd either have to make a toothbrush needle or buy one and I could only find them online. So that left knotting and crocheting and I thought crochet looked like more my speed.
That left me with having to learn to crochet. Back to youtube I went and watched all sorts of videos. Found some yarn in the kids' art project box and bought a small crochet hook (they're only $1.50, I figured if it didn't work out I wasn't out much). After the kids went to bed I'd sit in front of the computer with my yarn and hook watching tutorials and trying to figure out the abbreviations for all the stitches. After a few days of trying things, ripping them out and trying again I thought I might just be able to crochet a rug.
I went back to the store and got a big crochet hook. I dug out some clothes that I was going to take to goodwill and chopped them up and gave it a try. My initial tries were rough. But finally they started to look like something.
I remembered that I had a bag of old jeans that I had saved to do something with and they became my first ever rug. I loved how all the different colors of blue blended together. While it looks lumpy and bumpy in this pic (well, because it was), I had just finished it. After washing it and stretching it and walking on it, it laid down and is a wonderful rug.
I watched tons of youtube videos about rug making. I looked through lots of flickr accounts of rugs people had made. I saw knitted, knotted, braided, toothbrushed, and crocheted rugs. Talk about overwhelming. I knew knitting was out. Braided seemed easy since I knew how to braid, but it seemed too time consuming, first you had to braid then sew the braids together. By this time Christmas was fast approaching so I had to find a quick and easy way to make them. I nixed the toothbrush rugs because I'd either have to make a toothbrush needle or buy one and I could only find them online. So that left knotting and crocheting and I thought crochet looked like more my speed.
That left me with having to learn to crochet. Back to youtube I went and watched all sorts of videos. Found some yarn in the kids' art project box and bought a small crochet hook (they're only $1.50, I figured if it didn't work out I wasn't out much). After the kids went to bed I'd sit in front of the computer with my yarn and hook watching tutorials and trying to figure out the abbreviations for all the stitches. After a few days of trying things, ripping them out and trying again I thought I might just be able to crochet a rug.
I went back to the store and got a big crochet hook. I dug out some clothes that I was going to take to goodwill and chopped them up and gave it a try. My initial tries were rough. But finally they started to look like something.
I remembered that I had a bag of old jeans that I had saved to do something with and they became my first ever rug. I loved how all the different colors of blue blended together. While it looks lumpy and bumpy in this pic (well, because it was), I had just finished it. After washing it and stretching it and walking on it, it laid down and is a wonderful rug.
Up next, further adventures of rag rug making...
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