If you can braid, weave, knit or crochet you will be able to create unique area rugs for your home, or outdoor mats for your patio. It is as easy as weaving a potholder or braiding your child’s hair, or even knitting and crocheting simple rectangular scarves except you will be working with slightly different materials.
Knit or crochet dyed or natural colored soft washable cotton string, twine or stiff raffia (spot-clean only) available on spools at craft or hardware stores for $5.00 to $10.00 each. Work on a flat table top or coffee table to make sure the tension is smooth which will prevent buckling or uneven warping especially when crocheting granny squares or stitching braided rag rugs.
Patchwork Rugs
If you prefer crocheting granny squares you already know about all the colorful patchwork possibilities. By using different colored twines in the center, middle and outer rows of the granny square it is possible to make each square look like different flowers or to create different repeating patterns and designs with two-color shading. I would recommend looking through a book of granny-square afghans to get pattern and color-shading ideas for your area rug or patio mat.
Your kids may have a small plastic potholder loom which could be used to weave several individual potholder squares and then hand-sew them together. The number of squares needed will depend on the size of the rug or mat you want to make. Eight potholder-sized squares can then be stitched or crocheted together to create a colorful fiesta patchwork rug or bathmat, with or without fringe.
You can also make your own square potholder loom using a 6″x 6″ or 12″x 12″ wood block that you’ve hammered-in long nail pegs at the corners and at 1″ spaced-intervals around the perimeter. Cut up old T-shirts into 1″ wide strips to weave into squares and stitch together for an absorbent bathmat.
If you prefer braiding and have a lot of old clothes to cut up into 1″ strips you could make an oval or round braided rag rug. Once you have braided together your clothing strips into one long inter-woven braid, wind it into an oval or circle and hand stitch together row by row.
You can use this technique to make a braided satin-ribbon rug for your daughter’s bedroom, or make a round sports ball shaped rug for your son’s bedroom. By cutting 1″ strips of his old white T-shirts, braid into a round white baseball rag rug, or use a brownish-orange braided fabric to mimic a basketball.
Area Rugs and Runners
Knit or crochet area rugs and matching runners using larger-sized knitting needles or crochet hooks with cord, rope or raffia and using smaller-sized needles and hooks with washable cotton string or twine. The size of your rug or runner is determined by the number of chain stitches you begin with and the number of rows you add on from there. It is easier to crochet a larger area rug than it is to knit one, however knitting a stiff runner goes rather quickly on knitting needles.
You can work on any of these rugs or mats while watching television or waiting in your car to pick up kids from school, as long as you carry the supplies with you. The patchwork and braided rugs are the easiest to tote around and before you know it you will have plenty of squares or braids to stitch together for a unique patio mat, runner or area rug.
