Well, I really hadn’t planned to undertake this particular crochet project any time soon, but the universe conspired against me. ;-)
My rainbow rectangle rug is based on the design of the knitted Double Vision Afghan. Ever since I saw this project, shared recently in a post on the LionBrand Notebook blog, I had been thinking about how I would love to make something like it someday, because I highly enjoy making double-stranded projects.
Right away I made my own yarn color combination chart and began contemplating what color order, what size/type of project, what size hook, what fiber content, brand, weight, etc. I would use. Even though I am currently teaching myself to knit, I knew I wanted to make a crocheted version of Double Vision first. I also quickly decided that (since I really don’t need any more blankets, despite the nasty-cold winters we have in my home state) I would prefer to do a mini version, in the form of a rug.
So all of this had been floating around in my head for a couple of weeks, when I happened to wander through the pathetically small yarn section at a local chain store (looking for appropriate yarn for a small project a blog-friend would like me to make for her sometime – which, incidentally, I did not find). To my surprise, I discovered that all of the various shades of the rainbow in Red Heart Super-Saver (worsted weight) yarn were on sale! Well, I just couldn’t pass up the opportunity to save a little money on a project I knew I would inevitably make, so I picked out 9 brightly colored skeins of yarn (Shocking Pink, Cherry Red, Pumpkin, Paddy Green, Turqua, Blue, Amethyst, Dk Orchid, and Coffee) to use in addition to two other shades I already have in my yarn stash (Bright Yellow and Aran) for my Double Vision rug project.
And once I have yarn for a project, it’s extremely hard for me to resist starting in on it right away.
For my rug I made a total of 100 rectangles (using the 55 color combinations) which measure approximately 2.5 by 3.5 inches in single crochet stitches (8 across, 6 rows tall) with a size K hook. They are sewn together with a double strand of brown. And I added a finishing row of half-double crochet stitches around the edge of the rug, also in a double strand of brown. Apparently in the Double Vision pattern some of their squares are worked horizontally, some vertically, and the solids on the diagonal are worked on the bias (at least, this was the impression I got from reading a forum thread about this afghan design on Ravelry). I decided not to do that though; all of my rectangles are just worked horizontally.
For this project, I highly recommend working in the ends as you go, and also sewing the blocks together as you go. Weaving ends and sewing are my least favorite parts of crochet projects – and this one has A LOT of both - but if you do them throughout the project it doesn’t seem nearly as bad as if you leave all this until the end.
I had originally planned to keep the first rainbow rug for myself (as I usually do with projects, since I learn what I'm doing and oftentimes come up with better ideas of how I would/should do things during the first attempt). However, the timing of this project worked out almost perfectly for this rug to be a birthday gift for my Mom. As I knew she would, she absolutely loved it (and I hear her cat is quite taken with it too)! Luckily I still have enough yarn left over to make myself a rug (perhaps using a different color order), since I used less than half of each yarn skein for the first rug.
My rainbow rectangle rug is based on the design of the knitted Double Vision Afghan. Ever since I saw this project, shared recently in a post on the LionBrand Notebook blog, I had been thinking about how I would love to make something like it someday, because I highly enjoy making double-stranded projects.
Right away I made my own yarn color combination chart and began contemplating what color order, what size/type of project, what size hook, what fiber content, brand, weight, etc. I would use. Even though I am currently teaching myself to knit, I knew I wanted to make a crocheted version of Double Vision first. I also quickly decided that (since I really don’t need any more blankets, despite the nasty-cold winters we have in my home state) I would prefer to do a mini version, in the form of a rug.
So all of this had been floating around in my head for a couple of weeks, when I happened to wander through the pathetically small yarn section at a local chain store (looking for appropriate yarn for a small project a blog-friend would like me to make for her sometime – which, incidentally, I did not find). To my surprise, I discovered that all of the various shades of the rainbow in Red Heart Super-Saver (worsted weight) yarn were on sale! Well, I just couldn’t pass up the opportunity to save a little money on a project I knew I would inevitably make, so I picked out 9 brightly colored skeins of yarn (Shocking Pink, Cherry Red, Pumpkin, Paddy Green, Turqua, Blue, Amethyst, Dk Orchid, and Coffee) to use in addition to two other shades I already have in my yarn stash (Bright Yellow and Aran) for my Double Vision rug project.
And once I have yarn for a project, it’s extremely hard for me to resist starting in on it right away.
For my rug I made a total of 100 rectangles (using the 55 color combinations) which measure approximately 2.5 by 3.5 inches in single crochet stitches (8 across, 6 rows tall) with a size K hook. They are sewn together with a double strand of brown. And I added a finishing row of half-double crochet stitches around the edge of the rug, also in a double strand of brown. Apparently in the Double Vision pattern some of their squares are worked horizontally, some vertically, and the solids on the diagonal are worked on the bias (at least, this was the impression I got from reading a forum thread about this afghan design on Ravelry). I decided not to do that though; all of my rectangles are just worked horizontally.
For this project, I highly recommend working in the ends as you go, and also sewing the blocks together as you go. Weaving ends and sewing are my least favorite parts of crochet projects – and this one has A LOT of both - but if you do them throughout the project it doesn’t seem nearly as bad as if you leave all this until the end.
I had originally planned to keep the first rainbow rug for myself (as I usually do with projects, since I learn what I'm doing and oftentimes come up with better ideas of how I would/should do things during the first attempt). However, the timing of this project worked out almost perfectly for this rug to be a birthday gift for my Mom. As I knew she would, she absolutely loved it (and I hear her cat is quite taken with it too)! Luckily I still have enough yarn left over to make myself a rug (perhaps using a different color order), since I used less than half of each yarn skein for the first rug.
As you know, I plan to make a Double Vision something or other too, so I'm glad to see yours came out so wonderfully. I think I want mine to be bigger then a rug, though.
ReplyDeleteI considered making it a bit larger than a rug (but still smaller than a blanket) and using it as wall art, but ultimately I decided a rug would be much more useful. I think I forgot to include the total project size: This rug (and the one I'm now making for myself) measures approximately 26x36 inches.
ReplyDeleteHow exactly did you sew the pieces together? I made a small bath rug version and when I went to sew pieces together the black border between them wasn't turning out nearly as heavy as in your pictures/how I wanted it. (It looked like I had just sewn them together, instead of like a border). So instead I crocheted a black border around each piece, then sewed those together, then I crocheted a black border around the entire thing. I want to make this big rug version though, and I wondered if there was a better/easier way to make the border between the pieces.
ReplyDeleteWell, for this rug and my second version, I just used a darning needle and a loose basic whip stitch to sew the pieces together. I used a double-strand of yarn for sewing, so it made a thicker border between the pieces than what a single yarn strand would look like. And I tried to put my stitches fairly close together so the colors from the rectangles wouldn't show between my stitches.
DeleteFor my third and fourth versions of this rug I got lazy (because I don't enjoy the sewing) and just crocheted the pieces together using single crochet stitches instead. It still made a solid border between them, but I didn't quite like the look (and feel) of it as well as I like the ones I put together by sewing with a double strand.
HERE are photos of my other 3 rugs, in case you're interested.