Which material to choose
As mentioned above, the choice is great. You can take old clothes: synthetics, T-shirts, stockings or tights, laces or ropes. By the way, cords made of polyester or polypropylene are already knitted, and they will make very good and high-quality carpets.
If you take a plastic clothesline, preferably in bright colors, you can make a rug for the bathroom, because such material is not afraid of moisture. The only thing is that it is better to make openwork patterns - this way there will be no difficulties in the knitting process.
But rugs that will lie on chairs or stools are most often made from threads or strips of old clothes. These materials are not harmful to people's skin and will be pleasant to the touch due to their low hardness.
It’s good if you have multi-colored leftover yarn - this is a wonderful, convenient material.
If you want to make a carpet for yoga or performing sports exercises at home, it is better to take soft threads and knit a product similar to a mattress cover. Then you should fill the result of the work with foam rubber or something similar.
Before you start working, you should decide exactly what shape the product will be and find a suitable diagram (the Internet is full of them). The thickness of the hook you need to purchase also depends on the thickness of the material. The number ten is most often used.
As already mentioned, there are a surprisingly wide variety of options for making a rug. All are interesting in their own way and differ in shape and materials from which they are made. Here we will look at just a few methods.
If you wish, you can easily find millions of schemes on the Internet, choose the one that you like the most and that best fits into the atmosphere of the room.
Oval shaped
Oval-shaped rugs fit perfectly into the interior and make the atmosphere more aristocratic. Despite the fact that they will look great anywhere, it is best to lay such a product in the living room. And to connect it, you need to:
- Use chain loops to cast on a chain of the required length.
- Until you can knit a semicircle, alternating double crochets and single crochets.
- Continue tying the chain on the opposite side.
- Do this until you are happy with the size of the rug.
Circle shaped
This look would look great under a dressing table, bedside table, or on the floor near the door. If you use a chunky knit, the look will radiate warmth. It's not at all difficult to do this:
- Three air loops are collected and connected.
- They knit six single crochets.
- Mentally divide the product into six parts and knit six of the same stitches in each row.
If you constantly change the configuration of the product, the pattern will become unique and inimitable. You just need to knit circles in the correct sequence and tie them in the center. A round carpet will turn out to be very interesting and will add its own accent to the overall atmosphere.
Square shaped
This type will fit perfectly into the interior of a hallway or bathroom. And if the raw material is polyethylene, then even more so. In addition, caring for such a rug is extremely simple, and it won’t take much time to make:
- First of all, columns are placed on the first row. This continues until the desired length is reached.
- The thing turns over.
- Single crochets are knitted into the outer wall of the loop of the second row.
- Things turn around again.
- Along the third row, a wall of the same columns is knitted, but now there are loops in both walls.
- Repeat the above steps until you get a satisfactory result.
Rectangle shaped
Everything is simple here - the steps are the same as in knitting a square rug, but now it is important to think about the proportions. They are slightly different, but it is not difficult to understand.
Knitting from the center
Making square rugs starts from the center. To make a square, you need to make increases in each next row at the corners in the form of air loops and two columns.
- In each corner, insert the threads through the air loops. This is how you add at the corners.
- In this way you can make a product in the shape of a triangle.
- The main thing is to add the number of loops corresponding to the knitting pattern in each row in time.
From rags and old clothes
Work on this option begins with preparing the material. After all, in order to knit, you need to create some kind of thread. Therefore, the first step is to find raw materials. Old bed linen, bedspreads, curtains or other large pieces of fabric are perfect.
These items are cut into strips, the width of which varies from one to one and a half centimeters. Then you need to sew all the strips into one long “thread”. And then you can wind a large ball out of it.
Worn areas are removed, and normal ones are cut with a snake so that there is a minimum number of “thread” connections. This way the carpet will be neat not only from the front side, but also from the back side.
After doing all this, you can start regular knitting, as with threads.
Making a carpet from scraps of fabric will be very easy, because you only need one knitting element - a single crochet. It can be trained on simple threads using a small hook.
Once your hand is full, it will be much easier to work with a larger hook and such a difficult “thread”.
Again, the beginning is a chain of air loops that closes in a circle and becomes the beginning of a circle-shaped carpet. But a long chain can become the basis of a “row”. This is a rectangular rug consisting of many straight rows of different colors.
Yarn preparation
Crocheting rugs from rags involves preliminary preparation of yarn from them.
It consists in:
- Choosing old things based on fabric structure that match each other.
- Cutting sorted raw materials into strips.
- Selecting ribbons by color (if necessary).
- Final preparation of yarn for knitting.
In order to correctly select the necessary material for making floor mats from rags, the first step is to sort it out and sort it by type of material. That is, put knitted items in one pile, denim in another, cotton in a third, synthetic in a fourth, and so on.
- After sorting the rags by fabric quality, you should prepare them for cutting. To do this, you need to trim all the seams, that is, along the bottom of the product and the sleeves.
- Next, lay the item on a hard surface and cut it into strips from one side seam to the parallel one, but not reaching it by 2-3 cm. This is necessary in order to create one continuous strip in the future.
- When performing this operation, you should know that it is recommended to cut dense fabric into narrow strips, and thin fabric into wider ones.
- After such a cut, in place of a continuous section of material, oblique cuts are made from one strip to the next, that is, the result should be a spiral-shaped continuous strip.
- If it breaks, it is advisable to sew the ends together by placing them on top of each other. Tying knots is not recommended. This will create inconvenience during further work and spoil the appearance of the finished product.
- After cutting the tape from very frayed fabrics, before winding it into a ball, it is advisable to treat its sections with fire. This technique will secure the cut threads and extend the life of the rug.
- The resulting yarn is wound into balls.
With bumps
This funny rug looks larger than a regular one and retains heat better. It will fit perfectly into the nursery environment, giving it comfort and originality. To make such a product:
- A column is made and several double crochets are knitted from it. It should turn out that they have the same vertex.
- There should be as many double crochets as there are segments of the carpet.
- Each column is knitted with a zigzag from the beginning of the next row.
Knitting a flower
Working on rugs of this shape is quite difficult. Each loop must be made strictly according to the diagram, otherwise the lack of at least one will distort the entire image.
The flower shape can be made in another way. Prepare five circles of the same size with double crochets in columns.
Each circle is bent on both sides to form a five-leaf flower. The middle can be decorated with a button.
From plastic bags
This is where it gets more complicated - knitting from a garbage bag is not at all easy. It is clear that the yarn is developed first. To do this you need:
- Connect the cut strips of the bags (the cut should be longitudinal, not transverse)
- The strips from polyethylene bags should be three centimeters wide, and those from garbage bags should be one or one and a half centimeters wide.
- The fastening of the strips can be done by tying them together in a knot, or by passing the first through the ring of the second, and then through its own ring.
By looking at a variety of photos posted on the Internet or in special printed publications, you can be inspired to create a masterpiece with your own hands.
It could be a small rug in a strict classic style or an airy cloud of flowers and ruffles, or maybe something extraordinary - it all depends on your imagination. One thing is clear - no matter what happens in the end, the most important thing is that it was done with soul and love.
How to get inspired for work
Being creative helps you express yourself. But you need to approach any task with inspiration. But where to get it, you need to figure it out.
- First you need to concentrate, mentally create a positive attitude.
- Protect yourself from negative thoughts.
- Understand and accept constructive criticism, drawing appropriate conclusions in your favor.
- Any idea, even one that comes at the wrong moment, should be recorded on paper.
- Children help us see the unusual in the most ordinary little things.
- For everything to work out, you need a good rest in a calm environment.
- Specialized forums and magazines will come to the rescue, where you can also get a lot of different ideas.
- Use your imagination.
Photo of a crocheted rug
Practical advice
To prevent products made from scrap materials from sliding on the floor, pieces of rubber are attached to the underside. The material can be found around the house: used rubber tubes, unusable soles or pieces of rubber flooring.
Before cutting old fabric that will act as yarn, it is recommended to wash it and iron it thoroughly. This will make it easier to work with.
To get a more original decor for decorating a room, you should combine colors.
Preparatory stage
Even those people who are just beginning to master the basics of crochet are able to bring an unusual idea to life. Because the technology does not involve complex actions. The rug is knitted with regular stitches. Professional knitters do not recommend making an ornament or pattern. It will not be visible on the finished product. It is much better to use materials of different colors. Thus making the rug striped or with a gradient effect. In any case, before you start knitting, you need to prepare a large hook. Depending on the thickness of the strip, you can use a hook number six or higher.
In this case, it is not necessary to spend money on yarn. After all, to crochet circles on the floor, you can use old clothes, ropes, bags, clotheslines, etc. If the choice fell on clothes, then they must first be cut into thin strips. Moreover, it is better to start from the bottom edge, and then snake your way up.
Placement in the interior
At all times, carpets were considered the best floor coverings; they did an excellent job of insulating and giving the room an atmosphere of comfort and coziness. In modern conditions, the need to perform the function of preserving heat has largely faded into the background; now carpets are increasingly used for decoration.
Inexpensive and practical jute carpets and mats, due to their natural component, fit perfectly into almost any interior style. Such products will look especially harmonious in rooms decorated in Provence, country styles or the increasingly popular eco style.
Original rugs knitted from jute thread may appeal to romantics or fans of oriental style.
For the living room or bedroom, round or oval rugs knitted from jute twine are best suited. These can be either single-color openwork products or solid multi-color samples. It all depends on your preferences and the general style of the room in which the carpet will be placed. Small jute rugs and rectangular mats will look great in the hallway, kitchen and even bathroom.
Rope carpets hold their shape well and do not crumple underfoot, so they will come in handy in common areas that are most frequently visited by all family members.
If you are put off by the cheapness of the product, and at the same time you think that a jute carpet does not look very good in interior design, you can purchase a wool carpet with a jute base. Thanks to the irreplaceable qualities of jute, such products are characterized by increased strength and perfectly hold their given shape, while having a noble and luxurious appearance.