carpet

A Little Carpet

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What You Need.

One cardboard flap from a box.

Wool yarn (remnants are fine).

One ruler.

One pencil.

Scissors.

One large darning needle.

Step #1 Use your ruler and mark the top and bottom edges of the cardboard at 1/2 inch spaces all the way across the edge.

Step #2 Now draw a line 1/2 inch down from the top and 1/2 inch up from the bottom all the way across the cardboard. You will use this line to tell where to stop cutting the slots in the next step.

Step #3 Use your scissors and carefully cut a slot at each of the 1/2 inch spaces you marked in Step #1. Be careful and stop when you reach the line you drew in step #2. That will keep your carpet nice and square on the ends.

Sep #4 Next it is time to start wrapping your wool yarn around the cardboard. Start in the top left corner at the first slot you cut. Be careful and do not pull the yarn to tight and start to bow the cardboard, just tight enough to have it wrap evenly all the way around the cardboard. Keep wrapping until you have covered the entire cardboard with the yarn in each of the slots you cut..

Step #5 When you have finished wrapping all the loops you are ready to start putting in the cross weave yarn and make your carpet. Start on the bottom right corner. Use your ruler and slide it through the yarn you have wrapped. Place one yarn on the top of the ruler and one on the bottom all the way across the carpet. Now thread your yarn though the tunnel you have made with the ruler using the large darning needle all the way to the left side.

Step #6 Your next step is to pull the ruler out of the yarn and then thread it back in again. This time put the bottom thread on the top and the top thread on the bottom, just the opposite of the first row you made. And now you are starting to form the weave pattern.

Step #7 Keep threading back and forth across the carpet with your large darning needle. As you thread back and forth make sure you press the yarn that runs across your carpet together against the last thread to have a nice tight weave carpet.

Step #8 Repeat Steps #5 and #6 until you have filled your entire carpet weave. You may find the yarn is hard to handle in real long strips. When that happens just cut the yarn off and tuck the end into the carper weave you have finished to keep it from unraveling later.

Step #9 Finally, when the carpet is all woven, use your scissors and go the back of the cardboard. Cut the yarn about in the middle and release your carpet from the cardboard. Lay the carpet out flat and trim the loose ends so that you have a nice even fringe on your carpet at both ends.

NOTE: Later, once you are comfortable with making the carpet, you can experiment with colors and see if you can make different patterns in the weave.

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