Rag rugs!

[Ohioann]

I have woven rag rugs on a loom and made them with a knotting method. At our next spinners/weavers guild meeting we are having a mini workshop on a four strip braid technique. I've also made rugs from braided, felted wool roving. The wool technique is from a book called The Shepard's Rug by Lettie Kline. The trick to any of these techniques (except loom woven) is to get the rug to lay flat when you are finished.

 

[The Vail Benton's]

BBH If they aren't too big & depending on what you make them out of, you can wash them in your home machine. Larger ones would have to go in a front loader at the laundry mat, providing they aren't too big.

Ohioann I wish we had a guild like that here... I would love to see some of your rugs!

 

[xpc]

Have any of you guys ever made one? They look so cool! I *hate* throwing away torn old clothes, this would be a fun way to re-use them.
.

Sometimes you have to pick your battles, help support the Chinese children and turn your old rags into new - buy a new rug and use the tattered clothes as natural wipes.

http://living.wallypop.net/wipes.html

a quote from the website "Shake, scrape, swish, or squirt off anything you don't want in your laundry, and then toss the wipe into the pail or container"

 

[savingdogs]

I have not done it lately, but I used to be the Queen of rag rugs. The method I used was the thick crochet hook method already mentioned.

I had mixed success with my rugs. What I found is that it really mattered what material you made them from. For one thing, you cannot mix types of material. I used several different types of fabric but found heavier fabrics made flatter carpets that held up better. It also worked better to make rectangles that were no larger than bath mat size....if you made them round or large there was no way to keep them from slipping around or just not lying flat. Single crochet is all you need to do and crocheting that big could not be simpler.

However they made excellent bath mats especially when made from old towels. You just wash them however you would wash the fabric you make it from. Rugs made from stretch fabric were nice looking but impractical because they would slide around on the floor dangerously.

They do have a very "country" look so if that isn't the style you are going for it probably isn't a good choice unless you use an interesting fabric.

 

[buckeye lady]

I've been thinking of trying one of these with denim from worn out jeans.
Any thoughts?

 

[savingdogs]

The seams are too hard to crochet. I used just the single layer parts and made one, but it frayed a lot and was hard to make lie flat. I guess it didn't work so well for me. Maybe if you concentrated on making it very tight and very consistent it would work better.