I made a rectangular mat for the door to our back patio, and noticed that the edges were starting to curl, so I decided to frog it and make an oblong mat instead.
Pattern: Self-drafted. Chained 20 stitches, then on every round I sc 18 sts along each straight edge, and increased 3 sts on each end, doing an extra increase every 8th round. Made using recycled Wool and the Gang Jersey Be Good in Grey.
New skills: n/a
Lessons: I achieved a flat mat using these techniques:
Crocheted into the back loop so that the stitches were looser. I actually started doing this midway through the rug because I didn’t want to frog it back, so there’s a spiral stripe running around the outside edge of the rug—I’m very happy with how it looks.
Applied what I learned from this tutorial, namely: increasing 3 stitches on each rounded end (and increasing 1 extra stitch on each end every 8th round, since pi = 3.14). And as suggested, I staggered the increases so that they wouldn’t be aligned and make the ends look hexagonal.
The original mat was dusty and slightly sun-bleached. I washed it in the washing machine with like colors, then frogged it to let the yarn dry more quickly and wound it into a ball once dry. The color variation is visible on the new rug, though I don’t mind at all.
The proportion of a rug changes as more rounds are completed—the ratio of length to width will decrease with every round.
What I’d do differently: I’d like to get better at getting the increases on the first round look more symmetrical—one side has a larger hole than the other.
I want to retry a rectangular mat crocheting into the front/back loop only to see if I can get a rectangular mat to lay flat.
Care: Machine wash, lay flat to dry.
