Finished Knitting Rugs for the Bedroom

The Yarn

This yarn is a waste product created in the weaving of tweed fabrics in England.  Whilst at The Knitting and Stitching Show at Olympia in the Spring of 2014 I bought this yarn from Rachel John.  Rachel John is an extreme knitter, she knits large scale work mainly with multi-stranded yarn.  Her stand was full of blankets, rugs and cushion covers all knitted with multi stand yarn.  I had in the past knitted a multi strand scarf for my husband and started a blanket. I had started the blanket some years previous having seen Rachel John at a show in the past, however this blanket was massively eating yarn. So although the rug was beautiful, it lies forgotten at the back of my stash as I build up odds and ends to go into it.  When I saw Rachel John again at the show I mentioned this and she showed me this fabric edge yarn she had just started selling. This yarn seemed like a very cost effective way to knit the rugs I had already fancied knitting.

My intention was to knit a blanket or rug for use in the lounge of our houseboat. Rachel John told me that the yarn was pretty much fresh from the factory, and because it was a waste product it was a little dusty. She suggested washing it in the washing machine before winding it into balls.  I did this and ended up with the most almighty tangle.  So I sat down to watch The Killing with my husband and night after night was spent untangling it.  This was in April/May 2014, I knew we were moving at the end of May so once I had finished untangling this yarn I packed it away for the move.

In June we moved house, this house move would result in us spending a lot more time on our Dutch barge. The barge still had a lot of DIY work to be done over the summer.  Over the summer knitting got set aside whilst I made blinds and other such things for the barge.

 

Starting Out

In September as the temperatures cooled on the barge it became obvious that we would soon be in need of rugs. One particular concern was getting cold feet when getting out of bed.  I spent some time looking at rugs in Ikea and other high street stores. I could not find anything I liked but more importantly I could not find anything that was going to be narrow enough for down the sides of the bed in the main cabin in the barge.  I then remembered about the fabric edge yarn I had bought for the lounge.  Luckily the blue and grey colours would fit nicely in the bedroom, so I cast on.

I cast on this rug on September 28th.  I cast on 14 stitches on 24mm Knit Pro needles.  I then knit in garter stitch random stripes in the three colours I had.  Once I had used up half the yarn in each colour, this was about 40 rows I cast off. I then knitted another rug for the other side of the bed.

Finished

I knitted these two rugs in about 10 days.  They measure 40cm by 150cm.  They are well used and much loved now that it is cold.