Hello, again my knitting friends! This week I’m stitching up a big, cozy rug using Be Wool by Universal Yarns, and a free knitting pattern by the Universal Yarn Design Team: Spiral Rug. This is a super bulky yarn and using big needles to knit it up you’ll enjoy this rug by the end of the week. Promise!
Super bulky Be Wool makes the Spiral Rug soft and cozy. It feels lush when knitting.
Fall is here, and winter is not far behind. It’s time to make our homes cozy, especially this year when so much of our lives are lived indoors. With this in mind, I wanted to knit a soft, warm rug to add coziness to my place. I also needed something I could knit up quickly, as my late summer early fall has been filled with preparing kids to return to school and filling my pantry with homemade preserves. This has left me with very little knitting time.
Knit The Spiral Rug with Be Wool Yarn and a free pattern from Universal Yarn
Enter the Spiral Rug pattern from Universal Yarns. I knew I could knit this pattern up in just a weekend because it is designed with super bulky yarn and big needles. The pattern calls for Clean Cotton Big which is made primarily of cotton (obviously), but since I wanted to add warmth to my home I decided to use Be Wool instead. It has an acrylic and wool blend that makes it sumptuously toasty while also keeping it machine washable (especially if used as a rug). Win-win! I chose the color Pistachio (111) because I hadn’t quite decided if the rug would be used in my bathroom to warm up the wood floors, or to be placed in front of my fireplace for Snowy – my husky/lab rescue pup – and me to cuddle up in front of a crackling fire to read. I needed the color to be neutral, but I did want some color, not just black, white, or grey. Pistachio has a very subtle green tone, so it was perfect in either place. Just a little color theory, green is actually considered a neutral in the color palette and can usually be matched up with any color palette. I ended up using almost 3 balls (94 yards/ball) of Pistachio Be Wool to complete my rug.
Clover Jumbo Locking Ring stitch markers help keep the Spiral Rug on track.
The needles for the Spiral Rug are US Size 15 [10mm] UNIQUE KNITTING Double Point, and US Size 15 [10mm] UNIQUE KNITTING 16” and 23” circulars. Big needles for big yarn made this project fly off the needles onto my floor in no time at all. The only other supplies you’ll need to make this project is Clover jumbo stitch markers, a pair of small scissors, and a UNIQUE yarn needle. When it comes to stitch markers, I prefer the locking ring stitch markers. They look kind of like safety pins, so when I accidentally knit one of my stitch markers into my work (which I still occasionally do despite my years of experience) I can simply open the stitch marker and remove it. These are also useful to place as progress keepers. If you haven’t heard the term before, a progress keeper is placed into a stitch at the beginning of your knitting session. It allows you to see how much you’ve accomplished which is great motivation for when you hit a black hole of knitting (Black Hole of Knitting: when you knit for hours and hours, but every time you measure your work you get the nearly same measurement). I also have a preference for a Bent tip Darning Needle to sew in my ends. I don’t have any logical reason for it, I just find them easier to work with for some reason
So, now you have everything you need to start your own Spiral Rug. Now go work up a gauge swatch if you like. I went rogue, and just jumped in without one! Tomorrow, I’ll help you knit an invisible circular cast on that will allow you to tighten the center of your rug to close the hole in the middle that gives your rug a perfect finish.