Project 19: Crochet circle mat using t-shirt rag yarn – work in progress

I am de-cluttering around the house and I am working on my sewing area.  I’ve decided to reduce the amount of out-grown-clothing-stash.  I donated some nicer pieces to the Good Will and I have two projects on the go to use up scraps and less than perfect articles of clothing.  I am making yarn out of t-shirts and collecting scraps to stuff into another bolster.

The pattern is from the book Crochet me, by Kim Werker and is written for bulky yarn.  I used the rag yarn instead. As you can see the circles are not quite uniform, but an extra round of crochet should fix that when it comes time to assemble them into a rug.

So far, I have cut up old t-shirts to make yarn, but I will also try out some woven fabrics as well.  To make yarn, I cut fabric into one inch strips and used this technique to join them together.

Then I pulled on the t-shirt strips which makes them curl.

Here is a modification of the method to join very long strips to an existing ball of rag yarn (-for instance a t-shirt cut in a spiral fashion to give a long continuous strip).

First, cut a slit long enough to fit the ball through at the end of the rag yarn where you want to join a new strip.

Cut a small slit in the end of the long t-shirt strip.

Then insert piece of yarn with the long slit into the smaller slit.

Draw the ball through the long slit…

…and pull to tighten the join.

Pull on sections of the strip as you wind it onto the rag yarn ball.

Ready to crochet or knit!