So, I mentioned in my last post that disorganized clutter is one of my signs of depression, and then I cleaned up my desk space. Well, cleaning up my desk space does not mean that all the clutter magically disappeared. I did purge a bunch of stuff, but I also simply moved my craft projects a little to the left. See image below.

As I had just completed the desk cleaning project the day before, I was teetering on a personal responsibility high, worried I’d slip back into inertia in light of continuing career and housework overwhelm. Therefore, I began to dig through those bags to see what I could complete quickly to continue the momentum, and I came across that lovely skein of synthetic “roving.” All of my fiber experts, please chill out. I know that roving is roving and synthetic materials are synthetic materials. However, I have never worked with this type of acrylic before, and the only thing I could think to compare its bulk to was roving.

Anyway, the reason this skein of yarn had been sitting for a year or more in its original “Secret Santa” gift bag from whence it came was because I didn’t know if I could make a decent sized rug out of it without having to go buy another skein. I finally decided that though one skein would not make any large project, it just might create something nice for a small bathroom or laundry station, and getting rid of just one more stupid bag from my room would help keep that decluttering/reorganizing momentum going.

So, on a Saturday morning, when I knew I needed to be cleaning my house, but only wanted to escape into crafting, I decided to combine the two efforts:

The entire rug was done by hand with no crochet hooks. I got the idea from a post I had pinned years before, detailing a rug making process on Pinterest and had wanted to make a rug entirely “by hand,” but had not had the materials and time all in one go before this decluttering effort. The links to the video tutorial I watched, as well as the artist’s YouTube channel are at the bottom of this post.

This is also the project that finally convinced me that stitch markers were not only my friends, but life savers when used correctly (seriously, I made a sweater for my mom’s Chi-weenie after this, and that project would never have been completed without stitch markers, but I’ll post about that at a later date too). To explain, I taught myself to crochet, and sometimes there are habits, tricks of the trade, or tools I am too stubborn to use because I don’t know exactly how to use them, and I don’t want to be slowed down. The green yarn you see in these pictures is my stitch marker, as I had yet to purchase a large set.

I had to watch the video on YouTube about 15 times, but the whole process took only about an hour and a half. What did I learn from the experience aside from the wonder of stitch markers? Well, I learned that clean up while making a product is extremely satisfying. I learned that using a gift and truly appreciating it while using it is fulfilling and more than a little heartwarming–I even considered giving the product back to my Secret Santa, but then decided it would be better to put it on Etsy. I also learned that when crocheting a rug, the 2 stitches in one per round need to be rather tight, while the stitches on either side of those two need to be a little looser in order create a round rug, as opposed the polygon in my end result. At least I think I learned that, as I haven’t created a rug since, so I’m not sure if this the method I need to get rid of the obvious angles. If any of you know out there, please drop the secret in the comments below.

So, where’s the Abstract-Random pitch in all this? Well, it was a new way to feel like I cleaned my house, even though I still had more to do. Also, I have titled this post “The Two Hour Rug,” but it took less than that to finish. One might then ask, “What’s in the other 30 minutes?” And my response is this: It took 30 minutes to brag about my accomplishment on Facebook and wait for the compliments to come rolling in, which perhaps led to the greatest lesson I learned–not to brag about my lazy Saturday morning projects on Facebook, because all of my plans to sell my work go out the window when my relatives compliment me. One will make NO money this way, and perhaps this is also why pride is considered a sin. LOL

In all seriousness, I gave away the rug to someone who needed something a little soft in their life, and I hope it did the trick.

If you want the tutorial video for a rug made from real roving, then click here:

If you simply want the artist’s channel, then click here: https://www.youtube.com/user/ExpressionFiberArts

Thanks for reading! 🙂