Crochet Rugs

 I like braided wool rugs,

 and I like to make them.
I also like to crochet, especially single crochet.

 And, having a lot of odd bits of wool yarn to do something with, I have been dabbling in felted crochet.  If I hold a lot of strings together, it felts into a nice thickness for rugs. 
After I did the rug a couple of weeks ago with the hexagons, I started to think about mimicking the look of a braided rug in crochet.
This is my first attempt. 

As you can see, I made a rectangular middle section with hexagon like ends.  It seemed to go a bit twisted however, and I can see that I should have ended the row at the bottom left hand corner.  Also, the brown boucle that I used on the edges didn't shrink at the same rate as the other sections, so it is a bit ripply on the outer edges.
This time, I am making the ends more rounded.
 That means that I am increasing on the ends in an arbitrary way, adding stitches when I feel that it is starting to curl up a bit.

 I wound up a bunch of yarns on my ball winder, so I have some balls ready that have the right thickness for the crochet hook, which is 15mm!

 Other times, i am just setting the individual balls out on the floor and pulling them out at the same time.  That way provides a bit more flexibility in the color mixing. 
I'll keep on with this experiment, and hopefully get to what I'm aiming for.  Also, I am wondering about a zig-zag ripple type of rug....
This morning we got the new dining room chandelier installed!  I like it, and it is wonderful to have some light in there at last. 
I will update you when the dining room table arrives!

Felt Saturday

I didn't plan this for today, but it just unfolded that way.  I spent most a lot of today doing things with felted wool.   
Well, I did get sidetracked for quite some time in exploring other blogs.  That must be a phase that new bloggers go through, right?

 I made lavender pincushions/sachets,

And some more little round-topped bags

And here they are in a nice pattern:

I am also rolling some more coils for braided rug.  To write Part Two of the tutorial on how to make a braided rug, I have to start a new one so that I can take some photos of the process.  So, I am mulling over whether to make it round or oval, any votes on that?

Speaking of crafts tutorials, I came across this amazing how-to site, http://craftgossip.com/ 
which appears to have instructions for just about anything, perhaps making my how-to's redundant. Well, I have a lot to do. michelle