rag bath mat tutorial

so, i've been a bit m.i.a. around here lately...almost for a year now almost? i have such a on-again, off-again, obsessed, disinterested, obsessed relationship with making things, i tend to shift focus a lot. in any case, i've been working on a few projects, and going to be posting again! yay!

so, i'll start my first post back with a finished project/tutorial! a few weeks ago, my boyfriend and i were planning to throw out this huge king size comforter. it was just so much fabric though, that i couldn't bear to part with it. so it sat beside the doorway for about a week, before it came to me. rag bath mat. so, i bought the gigantic knitting needles - size 19! ripped the comforter, made the fabric yarn and here it is!

it went from this...



to this....



i followed the tutorial by cocoknits, but here's what i did.

started by cutting little slits at every 1.5" increment.


then, i ripped with my hands each strip until i had a whole bunch of strips.


to attach the strips to each other (knotlessly), you first cut about 1" slits at each end of every strip.

start to wind one end of the strip up. before you wind, leave the little tail of the first strip free (not pictured here). this will be very helpful if you need to add more yarn later, after you get started knitting.

then, put the first strip through the slit in the 2nd strip.

take the other end of the second strip and run it through the slit of the first strip.

now pull the strips til they lock hands. pull snugly.

keep feeding the strips through then wind them into balls.

you're ready to start knitting. if you need to add more "yarn" to your project after you get started, go back to your first ball where you left the tail sticking out and add yarn there.

now that you've got your yarn, it's time to knit the thing. i just did a basic 4x4 cable with seed stitch on the sides. it knit up very quickly! each row was about 1 inch tall, and my bathroom is tiny so this thing was done in no time.