Rag Rugs. Now this is not one of the things that have satisfied me very well in the past. I have cut or torn up fabric or cloth that didn't seem to have any other use, into long strips --- usually about 1 inch to 1 1/2 inch wide and crocheted the strips into baskets and various sized mats. I have never really felt they were pretty or particularly useful but this time it seems to have worked out nicely.
For some reason I thought I would try it again. Why? I don't know. Maybe I like using that giant size crochet hook. Maybe I feel not so guilty in cutting an already torn sheet into strips for a different way to use the cloth instead of into the bin (though it might also have been used as car rags too)
It takes forever to tear those strips --- then there are the straggling threads! Each strip has a few of those along the sides and if you don't pull them off, the whole thing can tangle which could cause a bit of frustration. There are a number of tutorials online of how to join the strips -- all I do is snip a hole in each end of each strip and pull one strip through both holes -- it makes a kind of turned and locked connection without making a big knot.
So I wound up the strips into one REALLY HUGE ball and starting in the centre used single crochet, increasing each round as needed. The beginning was six single crochet in a loop, the second round 2 single crochet in each stitch of the previous round, the next row, 2 single crochet in one stitch, then on single crochet continued around. Then the next row is one sc in each sc of the previous round, from there on in, I increase so that every second row has an increase of one more stitch in each repeat -- 3 sc in each previous sc then 2 in one, next row 1 in 1, next row 4 sc in each sc in each previous then 2 sc in one... Makes sense?
As the project progressed - and it does progress quickly -- I actually liked the looks of this project. It was laying flat, with no ripples or bulges, which meant my increases on each round were working out quite even. (oh, mark the start of each round so you have a general idea of when to work those increases).
It is about 36 inches from one side to the other. This is one whole queen size sheet, with the hems and selvedge discarded and the torn bit in the middle that was about 4 inches wide and the threads were very worn so I did not use the really thin section. Not too small and looks okay in front of the old wicker chair that my husband inherited from his grandmother some time before Time actually began. (we have a photo of him in that chair when he was about 5 years old -- and now he is not far from retirement and his gramma is long gone...)
Then I turned my back to do something and turned around again, to discover that Pearl had taken possession of the new rag rug and had made herself comfortable.
Not sure if I will do another -- but after previous failures at crocheting strips of fabric I would say this one has turned out to be quite pleasing so I am encouraged to consider rag rugs as a use for old sheets. I was thinking that a few of these would make good picnic or beach mats... Would a rag rug mat work on a park lawn under a tree on a spring afternoon to relax on while reading a book??
