Tutorial & video: The easiest method to start a rug & chosing colors

I stumbled across this idea when I was tying off a little trivet I made while my wife was in the hospital. I noticed that the series of half hitch knots I made around the hanging loop looked for all the world like the normal row... much more than braids or chain stitches do.

My wife is home from the hospital now, and as she's learning the craft, she was watching and filming it.

My papillon Hilde makes a cameo.

At the end I give some guidance about how I chose the colors for a rug- I start with the start, and follow the "dao" of the rug from there.

Hilde my papillon always wants to be involved with the rugs I make, even the starts, so she provides comic relief!

Text tutorial

Take a thick or heavy strip-in the video I use the button holes strip from a blouse- this will be what you tie around, like the green pole in the picture.
Splice a piece of rug material to it, and from the splice end, start tying a series of half hitch knots until you have a long enough start-
* For a round rug, anything under 6 inches should work, but 2 or 3 inches is sufficient.
* For an oval rug, you'll need one much longer
* For a square or rectangular rug, you'll need a start as one long as your longest edge.

When you have a long enough start, create a loop around your thumb
Insert the needle through the SECOND loop to the right, and use the first loop to the right as your "top loop". You won't have a "middle loop" on this stitch, but you will the next, don't worry!
Twist your thumb loop over, and voila, you're stitching a rug!

For the first stitch you'll probably need to do a double stitch, but after that you won't need to do any more than normal.

Going around the ends the first few times, you may even need to do a couple of triple stitches.

Youtube version

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