The Rope Rug

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At this point, Travis and Linda got on opposite sides of the rope-maker and started cranking out yard after colorful yard of thick polyester "rope". Says Travis: "I figure the two of us spent a little over an hour twisting our material into fat, tri-colored cords."

TYING IT ALL TOGETHER

After they'd made their rags into ropes, the Brocks began coiling and lacing the many yards of cordage into an oval rug. "For lacing material," Linda remarks, "we used the heaviest black thread we could find . . . however, a strong rug yarn—or dark colored kite string—would also have worked."

Travis points out that during the lacing operation (a technique that's explained at length in MOTHER NO. 12, pages 60—66), the homespun rug's ropes are never pierced. Instead, twine is drawn between the strands of each adjacent cord. ("We found that a large-size crochet hook is a great tool to use for this," says Travis.)

Linda notes that whenever she worked her way to the end of a rope of one color pattern, she simply "sewed the end of the next rope to the end of the preceding one and continued as before."

THE BLUNT FINISH

"Since there doesn't seem to be any way to end a spiral-wound oval rug invisibly," Travis remarks, "we merely sewed the very end of the last coil of cordage to the edge of the rug and accepted the blunt finish as part of the rug's character."

Travis mentions, however, that there is one advantage to ending the rope rug this way. "Namely, it allows you to add more rope—and thus expand the rug—as you locate more makin's and feel the need to cover more floor area."

So there you have it, gang: a relatively quick and simple way—given a rope-making machine—to turn rags (if not to riches) to rugs!

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