Latch Hook Rag Rug with Knit Scraps ~ Part 1

I’ve been cleaning up my craft room the past few weeks, trying to bust through some unfinished objects. I realized I had a HUGE pile of knit scraps that were taking up more than their fair share of my craft room. That lead me to start another project, but only in an effort to free up some space! Anyway, I’m sharing the beginnings of a latch hook rag rug with y’all today. It’s something that will take a little more time than I thought! I will share part 2 when I finish it & bind the rug.

Rug Parts

I had this basket next to my yarn shelf to put knit scraps in. All that stuff in the floor was either stacked on top of it or stuck in another box on the shelf. These are leftovers from t-shirt quilts & old clothing that was past the point of repair. The intent was to turn most of it into yarn for baskets and such.

I did start winding things into balls that I could get longer strips out of, but there were lots of things that were just too short. Crocheting with t-shirt yarn is tougher to me anyway & I didn’t want a ton of joins in it.

I decided to try using the shorter stuff to make a rag rug. This latch hook canvas was just laying around waiting for a project like that! By the way, typing in “latch hook mat” will lead you to kits & not the canvas. In case you’re wondering… : )

I also purchased a latch hook tool at the same time I purchased the canvas. My plan was to use it with my yarn scraps to make some wall hangings, which will still happen eventually! This tool basically explains why this is called “latch hook”!

Since my canvas is so large, I’m only going to use 1/3 of it for the rug. It may wind up smaller once I see how far my scraps go.

I’m using an old pair of super stretchy denim combined with different kinds of knit scraps. The denim was cut in a less stretch direction, so I cut the strips about 5″ x 1/2″ or so.

The knit scraps I cut to the 5″ length, with the width depending on how stretchy it was.

Latch Hooking

I’m going to show y’all how a latch hook is supposed to work, then show y’all how I used it for the rag strips.

You fold the length of yarn in half & put the hook through it going past the latch.

Then you put the hook & latch through the canvas while holding the yarn ends & wrap the yarn ends between the hook & latch. Normally you would then pull the tool back out, capturing the yarn ends between the hook & latch. This would allow you to pull the yarn ends through the looped end of the yarn & pull it snug to the canvas.

This did not work with the rag strips because they were too big for the tool. So, I put the tool through the canvas past the latch. Then I folded a rag strip in half & put it in the hook.

This allowed me to utilize the latch to help pull up the looped end. Then I had to put the ends in manually.

I does take slightly longer than regular latch hooking, but it still works!

The Layout

Since I have the more of the burgundy strips than the others, I’m alternating the two as I go along.

I’m also stopping the rows at about 1″ from the edge of the canvas. This will allow me to fold it under for binding.

Because the scraps are so bulky, I skipped every other slot in the row. I also realized I could skip a row of slots between each row of strips.

After doing two rows in a linear fashion, I realized it would go much faster if I hooked the strips diagonally. In a set of four squares, I’m going in one corner & out the opposite corner.

This gives me good coverage with less loops! You can see the difference on the back the best…

Here’s the front after four rows…

When I ran out of the light purple, I replaced it with some teal!

I’ll be working on this a few rows at the time in between all the other UFO’s. This one is doing double duty for me because I’ll have a new rug at the end & hopefully an empty scrap bin! : D

Pin it for later!