Heirloom Doily Rug

Back in December, Jake pointed out to me that I had yet to knit anything for our house. I've made a few blankets for wedding presents, and a pillow for my in-laws, but nothing for us and our little house. So, I resolved to make some things for us. I started browsing through my favorites on Ravelry and making plans. 

Speaking of, isn't is fun to go back and browse through things you've marked as a favorite? It's often where I find forgotten patterns, and is almost always a source of inspiration.

I'd forgotten that a while ago I earmarked this vintage doily pattern with plans to use bulky yarn and turn it into a rug. So, I grabbed my big (US13!) needles, some bulky Lion Brand yarn, and went to work. When I first started knitting, this was my go to yarn - I was doing craft shows and this yarn was perfect for the cowls and fingerless gloves I was selling. I have quite a few skeins leftover that have just been sitting around for a few years, and thought they would be great for this project. 

But, true to my modus operandi, I didn't have enough yarn. I ran out of the oatmeal color four rounds before the end, and had to improvise. I thought the green would make a nice edging color, and was rolling along when I ran out of it, too. Luckily, I had enough of another color that didn't contrast too much, so I finished the rug off with it.

Initially, I finished the green rounds, and immediately bound off with the eggplant color, but found that the edges kept rolling up. So, I tinkered back, did a purl round, and then bound off. It worked wonderfully. And while the colors at the edge were made out of necessity, I'm actually quite fond of them.

I used my iron and steam blocked the finished rug to open up the lace and help it lay a little better.  I was a little skeptical at first, because this yarn is mostly acrylic, but it worked really well, and was a much quicker way to block than wet blocking. I've only ever done wet blocking before, but may give steam blocking a try on my next wool garment.

You can find a few more details on my Ravelry page.