The end of my Lace Adventure – White Tea Doily Rug

Not long ago I wrote about my first lace adventure. I suddenly decided to design a doily rug. Well, not really suddenly. This idea came when I got a fantastic kit of yarns from Circulo. I was impressed by the size of Barroco Natural yarn skeins and wanted to try it at once. And here is the result! Let me introduce a new design – White Tea Doily Rug.

It was my first lace experiment and I should admit that it took me quite a long time before I was satisfied with the final result. My math (and my brain) didn’t work well all the time and I had lots of ripping. I’ve always wanted to make a large rug. Every time I saw a new white or light gray doily on the internet I was falling in love immediately. And, well, my dreams came true and I have my own!

It is white, pure cotton and 88 cm (35 inches) large. You can get even larger size if you use thicker yarn and larger size of the hook. Barroco Natural is DK yarn (I believe, or light worsted. There is no sign of its weight or gauge on its label) and I used 4 mm (G) hook as recommended by yarn producer.

I tried to create a very flexible pattern which can be adjusted to everyone’s needs and taste.

• This design can be used as a rug for spaces with low traffic – like bedroom, for example. But it can be a nice bathroom rug, too. More than that it can be used as a table decoration. I guess it would look very beautiful on a round table. It can also be used as a baby blanket.
• This pattern consists of three sections and it’s very easy to adjust its size. If you crochet only a central part you will get a small lace doily. With two repeats White Tea Doily Rug will work well as a table decoration, or a medium rug (depending on which yarn you use). And three repeats make it a large rug or a blanket.
• The pattern is written with only one color used but you can take different colors to crochet it. Your own color combination will bring a unique look to your project. And this pattern also gives a great opportunity to use the scraps of yarns. So it can become a leftover project.

Here is a smaller version of my rug (two repeats) in orange. To make it I used Barroco Maxcolor yarn by Circulo - one skein of 400g/14.11oz.

It was much fun to see how a huge ball of Barroco Natural yarn by Circulo was melting as my rug was growing. Here is how it started:

…in the middle…

And here is what was left on the last rounds. I used one big ball of this yarn for my rug (700g/24.5oz) but you may use more or less yarn depending on your gauge.

 

It is very important to have the gauge under control while making this rug. During the test we (me and my wonderful testers) came to the conclusion that not every yarn will work well for this pattern. It’s better to choose soft yarn rather than stiff. And I would also recommend to check the flatness after every round. You can just put your piece on a flat table and check if it has any waviness or not. If your rug is a bit wavy – you should adjust your gauge a bit. And once you “catch” the right feeling – everything works just fine.

You can see the projects of other people linked up to White Tea Doily Rug on Ravelry. Here is a rug made by Rebecca Wood. She used one lavender color and it looks beautiful, doesn’t it? And it seems like someone has already decided who’s place it will be :)

The project of Lori McNamara is a good example of what a White Tea Doily Rug can look like when several colors are used. Lori’s color choices are always very nice. And this is not a surprise as she is an artist. You can check her wonderful paintings here.

And here is a very special project by Sonea Delvon. She decided to make a doily instead of a rug and she also used beads to decorate it. Looks just magic! Sonea also posted short instructions on how to use beads for this pattern:

“String beads on yarn. After rnds 6, 11, 14, 24, 27, turn piece round, as you are slip stitching the beads on from the wrong side of your piece. You need to know which stitch is going to be the center stitch of your petals in the following round. You always skip this stitch, move a bead up, position it, insert hook through next stitch, pull up yarn and work a long sl st, since you are skipping one stitch, it has to be long enough to cover that space. Important: Do not work the sl sts too tight. The next round is the petal rnd, worked regular from the RS, each stitch is worked in the sc right over the sl sts from the beading rounds to hide them”.

There was a discussion during the test about how to prevent crocheted doily rug from being slippy. There were different options suggested (like silicone or fluid latex which can be put under soles of shoes or socks for anti-slippery soles) but I will try an anti slip matting for carpets and rugs in light beige color. This doily rug doesn’t have large holes so the underlying fabric should not be visible through it. I will buy it as soon as I get to the carpet store!

The pattern of White Tea Doily Rug is available for purchase on Ravelry, Etsy and Craftsy.

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