Bath Mat

I found a ball of “Pound of Love” yarn when I was cleaning and tidying my craft supplies the other day. I bought the yarn to make a baby blanket for a friend almost two years ago. I usually don’t buy 100 % acrylic yarn (except for a crocheted “tawashi“, which is a Japanese equivalent for a knitted/crocheted washcloth), but I was looking for a lightweight, non-wool machine-dryable yarn, and Pound of Love fitted in that category. Unfortunately, the yarn didn’t work out well for the design I thought I’d knit, so it’s been in a box since then.

As I was still in a late spring cleaning mood, the yarn started bothering me. It was huge (a pound!) and taking up precious stash space. At first I thought of taking it to Goodwill, but somehow I decided to challenge myself to make something useful with it… I knitted and unravelled several swatches, and settled on knitting a bath mat.

I knitted six strands together to make the mat thick. I didn’t cut yarn or make balls to knit six strands together. I just took both ends of the yarn, and made a big chain with each strand, like when you do the Navajo Plying. It sounds simple, but it was a pain to knit… It took me two days to knit this 29 stitches x 58 rows piece of fabric. I did more untangling of the yarn than knitting it.

I think the bath mat turned out OK. It looks nice, and it’s thick enough to step on with bare feet. I guess it won’t absorb water like cotton, but I think I can use it sometimes. Best of all, I used up the yarn!

I’m still working on my May ToDos, nothing has finished yet…