How to Make a Hearth Rug Using Wool Yarn
Hearth rugs are a beautiful accent to any home, whether they are in front of the fireplace to protect your floor from embers or serving as the decorative focus in your formal living room. Making a hearth rug is easy and adds a personal touch to your decor. It does not require hours of your day or much money--just the cost of a few skeins of wool yarn. Anyone, whether artist or amateur, can make these simple, one-of-a-kind rugs. Does this Spark an idea?
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Instructions
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Cut about 2 yards of wool yarn off the skein. Repeat this action until you have thirty 2-yard strands of yarn. Tie a knot at the end and divide these strands into 3 groups of 10. Starting at the knot, make a moderately tight braid for the entire length. Cut 60 more 2-yard strands of yarn and make more 2 identical braids. When all 3 lengths are braided, take the knots out of the ends. Then, braid the 3 lengths together. At the end of this step, you should have one 2-yard braid, about 1 to 1 1/2 inches thick.
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Tape about 15 inches of the end of the braided yarn onto a table or flat surface. Begin to wrap the rest of the braid, flat on the table, around the 15-inch stretch, which will become the center. Make sure the edges are touching. This technique will render an oval hearth rug. If you want a circular rug, begin wrapping the braid immediately around the end. Similarly, for a longer rug, make the straight part longer than 15 inches. Be careful to keep the braid flat to the table, and work slowly so that the braid does not become twisted or lumpy. Keep the wrapping rather loose; this will help it stay flatter.
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3
When you have reached the end of the 2 yards, apply safety pins to hold the braids in place. Then sew the braids' edges together, keeping the oval flat against the table, with a needle and wool yarn. If you do not have a needle large enough to accommodate the thickness of the yarn, thread will work also.
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Repeat Step 1, and continue to wrap the second 2-yard length of braid around the perimeter of the oval. When you reach the end of this length, sew the braids' edges together again. Continue Step 1 through Step 3 until the rug is as large as you like.
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When you are happy with the size of your rug, twist the ends and sew them to the adjacent braid. You can even tuck them into the braid so that they do not stick out. Make sure your knots are tight so they will not come unraveled. Place the rug in front of the hearth, or anywhere that needs a homemade accent, and get ready to show off your handiwork.
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Tips & Warnings
For added strength, subdivide the braided chunks. For example, braid 3 groups of 3 strands of yarn 3 times, and then braid all 3 together. Use this triple-braided length of 9 strands of yarn with 2 others of its kind (in place of the 10 loose strands in Step 1) to make the rug stronger and thicker. Use wool yarn for your hearth rug because "wool will not burn, but it does scorch," said Rochelle A. Shenk of the website "From House to Home" (April 2009 issue). For this reason, do not expect your rug to remain in perfect shape--think of the scorches as signs of use. Alternate colors or patterns of wool yarn every 2 yards for a striped look (see photo).
As always, when dealing with an open fireplace, exercise caution and do not place the hearth rug too close to the fire. It will take some abuse from small embers, but it will--by no means--quell an open flame. A grate or other barrier between the floor and the flames is always a good idea.
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Resources
- Photo Credit Photo by Kimberly Bunker
