Knit Rugs from Tee-Shirts

I wanted a couple of rugs for beside the bed, so I decided to knit 2 rugs using old tee-shirts that I made into yarn. I asked friends for their old tee-shirts or other similar knit material and a few gave me some of their unwanted tee-shirts. What took the most time of all was cutting the tee-shirts up into the strips and knotting them together and winding into ball. I also pull on the strips after knotting them together so that the material curls in and creates the "yarn". 

I knit this one with the linen stitch. It has a woven look to it. This one I gave to my husband.

Close-up of the linen stitch.

For this one I knotted the tee-shirt strips creating a variegated yarn. These were the only colors I had at first to use. Since then I have been give more tee-shirts. This was knit in the garter stitch.

Close-up of the garter stitch.

The back or wrong side of the linen stitch is nice looking too. Here you can see the front and the back.

This is a close-up of the back or wrong side of the linen stitch. It has a bumpier texture.

I am making more tee-shirt yarn right now as I have acquired more tee-shirts. I want to make a large oval crocheted rug for our living room. I can crochet the stitch just fine, but I need to get a better understanding of  where to do the increases. I have trouble with crocheting because I am not certain to the exact place to increase. I started to crochet a round smaller rug and tried to follow the instructions which sounded fine, but as I crochet I cannot see clearly where to increase. My rug curled and wouldn't lie flat. I ripped it our found another pattern and the same thing happened. Then I thought an octagon might be easier to make increases, but it too started to curl. I carefully placed a marker on the round and octagons rugs too. I so much prefer knitting, but I don't think you can knit a flat oval or round rug, so it has to be crocheted. Any help from you crocheters out there would be much appreciated.
Pin It Now!