Colours of Lewis: Knitted Rug

Hebrides Rug

Way back in May 2016 we went on holiday to Lewis and Harris. I love the Hebrides, the colours, the landscape, how friendly the people are and of course the textiles. I couldn't visit such an important centre of textile production without coming away with a couple of small mementos. One of these not so small mementos was a huge ball of wool made from waste threads from the production of Harris Tweed, which I got in the amazing Lewis Loom Centre.

Lewis yarn

Starting off

Moss stitch border

When I bought it I wasn't sure what I'd use it for but the colours sang to me and I knew I'd find a good use for it! The colours in the yarn are so beautiful that I didn't want to knit anything too fancy but rather I wanted something that would show them off. As both myself, Mr. Stitches and our cat are quite messy and we have a cream carpet (poor choice) I decided a small rug might be a good idea as the wool itself is quite rough so will hopefully be hard wearing. Now every time I look at the floor I'll be reminded of our lovely holidays instead of the fact that I need to vacuum!

Mega balls of yarn at Lewis Loom Centre

Inside Lewis Loom Centre

Harris coastline

If you'd like to have a go at making something similar I'm including the pattern on this post for you. It's very simple, a plain stocking stitch centre with a moss stitch border knitted on fairly chunky needles to showcase the colours of the yarn. The yarn I used is made up of 8 fine yarns spun together to make a chunky weight yarn. As exact size isn't crucial you could substitute any hard wearing chunky yarn for this project. It would also be able to make the rug bigger or smaller by adding or subtracting stitches. My rug measures around 70 cm x 50 cm and was knitted on 9 mm needles.

Detail

Detail

Pattern

Cast on 70 sts

Rows 1,3,5,7,9: K1, P1, rep. to end

Rows 2,4,6,8,10: P1, K1, rep. to end

Row 11: K1, P1 5 times, K to last 10 sts, K1,P1 5 times

Row 12: P1, K1 5 times, P to last 10 sts P1, K1 5 times

Repeat rows 11 and 12 until you have 40 rows (or there about) of stocking stitch, ending with a row 12

Repeat rows 1-10

Cast off

Enjoy!

Detail

Something for the weekend

Recycled t-shirt rug

Something strange happened, I found myself with a free weekend! Well, I could have done my tax return but I decided that spending the time crocheting would be much more productive. I've been planning to make a rug for my studio from my old jersey tops since we moved in a year ago and so this weekend seemed like the perfect opportunity.

No longer worn tops

Making them into yarn

Fabric yarn ready to use

I had a big clear out of my wardrobe fairly recently so I had plenty of materials. I'm something of a magpie and find it really hard to get rid of stuff especially if I think I can re-use it for something else. The problem with this is that I end up with stacks and stacks of stuff and no time to do anything with it! So, it was very satisfying finally getting around to cutting all my no longer worn tops and vests into yarn, winding it into balls and admiring it.

Getting started

Second colour

Progressing

I based my design on an old doily pattern, simplifying it to accommodate the oversized yarn. I had to use the sleeves as well as the bodies of the t-shirts for some of the rounds as this project uses a lot of yarn/fabric and I tried to stick to one colour/item of clothing for each round. For the final edging I ended up using two different fabrics but I think this adds to the quirky nature of the project.

Centre section

Detail

Edge detail

The finished rug is about 80 cm across and used four vests, six tops and some leftover  t-shirt yarn from Harry's cat house and a 12 mm hook. I'm pleased with the finished result, I think next time I make something like this though I will make it a bit more solid as I'm not sure how practical the openwork areas on this one are but it does look pretty!

As soon as I set it down Harry claimed it