the Crochet mat is felted

I crocheted like mad yesterday so that I could see what the mat would look like felted.

un-felted

felted

The felting tightens up the crochet stitch, but it doesn't shrink as much as a knitted item would.  I'm not sure why this is, possibly something to do with how much the yarn can shift around when washing, or how it's twisted or something.  However, I have noticed that things can shrink up more with further washings.  This was washed in a regular, top-loading machine. 

 I've placed it at the side of our bed, which has a very colorful quilt on it!
 This is what it looks like:

 I made this quilt about 6 or 7 years ago.  I like how the border fabric looks like white fluffy clouds although it is really flowers. 
I decided not to do another rug right away, but I am trying out a felted tote bag, knitted this time.

 It is from this book, One Skein, by Leigh Radford.  There are several good projects to try from this book!

The bottom I am doing in brown, as in the book, but I am daydreaming about what colors to make the stripes.....
Have a great Wednesday!  If you got here from the Work in Progress Wednesday, Hello, and thanks for stopping by,

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!