Knocked another long term publicly declared UFO off the list. The braided rag rug that I started for our old house, picked up and worked on again for our future house, then started to undo in craft defeat a few years ago, is now a functioning rug, albeit a knitted one.
Lessons learned? I still can’t crochet – it bothers my wrists, so I’m okay with not pushing myself to stick with it. Braiding is not tanglely if you move one ball – don’t think I knew that for the first 80 yards or so. I’m open to making another braided and sewn rug one day, but out of wovens, not knits. I’m definitely up to making another knitted rug, but there’s no need to braid beforehand. I’ve since learned how to cut t-shirt yarn more quickly and cleanly, but the all the rough bits of seams and bands and such are fine in a rug and make no waste.
Details – started with around 120 yards of braid, but ended up making ~60 yards more to finish. Used size US 50 needles. Cast on 33 stitches, ended up with X rows/purl bumps (can’t be arsed to count). I could only knit 2 rows at a time before I had to take a break – a third row made pain that lasted longer than progress was worth. But as long as I stuck to just 2 at a time, I was able to do several 2-row knitting sessions a day, so it was done in a couple-three weekends because of extra braiding time. How many shirts? Eh, don’t feel like counting those either but most of them were on the smaller side though there were also a few XL men’s and maybe a dress. And there’s always at least one strand of black or near black throughout.
The finished project is very thick and squishy – great dog mat and also nice for human ass bones, so I’ll probably keep it in the room I often sit on the floor (until I find the small chair of my vintage dreams). If it is tread on more, I’m thinking it might stretch a little (as would washing it) but since the goal was to finish it rather than make it a specific size for a specific spot, size & shape doesn’t matter too much, though I’m not washing it until it absolutely has to be – it weighs… over ten pounds? At least a couple bags of flour? Other potential places for it would be bedside, under the desk or sewing table, or the basement.
The only publicly declared long-term UFO left is the sweater quilt I started in the ’90s – I’ve got it on my list of shit to do for this year but I still haven’t repaired and embiggened the pieced flannel duvet cover, so I think that’s going to be my priority (along with seeing if there are enough scraps left to make a quilted throw – note to self to thrift a sheet to use as a backing for the pieced top since the fraying of that flannel is never going to stop).
ASTITCHMATISM 