Crochet knee rug for beginners
I only learnt to crochet a couple of years ago, and last winter I really wanted to improve my crochet skills to the point where it was an unconscious movement rather than a very concious and laboured effort. The best way to do that (possibly the only way) is repetition, so it made sense to make something large. I decided to make a rug.
As I was intending this for practice, I didn't know how it would turn out and I didn't want to buy new yarn in case I wasted it, so I decided to use some of the yarn I had been hoarding wisely buying from the markets. As I didn't really known how much yarn I had and how much rug I wanted to make, it was difficult to find a pattern to use.
I didn't want to make multiple granny squares that would have to be joined together later (I can picture a stash of squares waiting to be joined years later). I also didn't want to make one of the pretty patterns that require you to decide the length of one end of the rug and work backwards and forwards. My solution was to start with one granny square and just keep working outwards.
I was going to make a new granny square, but I couldn't get the centre started properly, so I gave up and grabbed one that I started earlier when I was first practising crochet. From there is was simply a case of working around and around in alternating colours. However it took me a while to figure out the best pattern to use and I ended up with a weird puckered effect. When I showed it to a friend, she pointed out that I had added too many stitches early on. When she showed me I could see the mistake. I wasn't happy about it and unravelled back to that point.
I was still confused about the corners and had to draw out the stitches and count how many I would need to make work so that there would be enough on the next row without causing it to pucker. Trust an engineer to complicate things!
Finally I could see what needed to happen. In each gap I do three treble crochets and then a chain and into the next gap. The chains form the gaps for the next row. At a corner you need two sets of three trebles, I separated these by two chains so there was space on the next round to put the two sets of trebles.
Once I got the hang of it I got quite quick and went around until I ran out of yarn. The rug is the perfect size to go over my knees in winter (which I can hardly imagine at the moment in a heat wave, but I have a vague memory of being cold when I started the rug!).
This is the perfect pattern to try if you just want to practice very basic crochet technique, produce something useful and use up some old yarn without committing to a certain size of rug. Since I made the rug I've also made a little scarf using a different arrangement of the same stitches and I'm pleased to say that my speed and confidence is greatly improved.
Previous posts about knitting and crochet:
As I was intending this for practice, I didn't know how it would turn out and I didn't want to buy new yarn in case I wasted it, so I decided to use some of the yarn I had been hoarding wisely buying from the markets. As I didn't really known how much yarn I had and how much rug I wanted to make, it was difficult to find a pattern to use.
I was going to make a new granny square, but I couldn't get the centre started properly, so I gave up and grabbed one that I started earlier when I was first practising crochet. From there is was simply a case of working around and around in alternating colours. However it took me a while to figure out the best pattern to use and I ended up with a weird puckered effect. When I showed it to a friend, she pointed out that I had added too many stitches early on. When she showed me I could see the mistake. I wasn't happy about it and unravelled back to that point.
I was still confused about the corners and had to draw out the stitches and count how many I would need to make work so that there would be enough on the next row without causing it to pucker. Trust an engineer to complicate things!
Finally I could see what needed to happen. In each gap I do three treble crochets and then a chain and into the next gap. The chains form the gaps for the next row. At a corner you need two sets of three trebles, I separated these by two chains so there was space on the next round to put the two sets of trebles.
Once I got the hang of it I got quite quick and went around until I ran out of yarn. The rug is the perfect size to go over my knees in winter (which I can hardly imagine at the moment in a heat wave, but I have a vague memory of being cold when I started the rug!).
This is the perfect pattern to try if you just want to practice very basic crochet technique, produce something useful and use up some old yarn without committing to a certain size of rug. Since I made the rug I've also made a little scarf using a different arrangement of the same stitches and I'm pleased to say that my speed and confidence is greatly improved.
Do you crochet? Any easy pattern ideas for beginners?
See below Amazon Affiliate links for a few knitting books that I find useful including the one I mentioned above. If you buy through these links I get a small commission at no extra cost for you. If you're reading this on email or blog reader, you will need to visit my blog to see all the links.
Previous posts about knitting and crochet:
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