International Mat of Mystery

Life has gotten in the way of blogging again of late and I apologize, but I am going to try to use this blog to keep myself on task with the myriad knitting projects I have in various states of completion.

One such project, now completed, is my mat. Some of you know about this mat and have been awaiting it with enthusiasm and I appreciate that.


The only thing truly International about this mat is I discovered it in the Summer issue of Knit Simple while flying from St. Petersburg to London on my way home from Russia this spring.

The mystery came from who was going to receive the mat and what room it would look best in. It was designed as a bath mat and I considered making it as a gift, but wound up keeping it myself and putting it in the kitchen, so really not its intended result.

I made it out of Cotton Ease in Sand, Lime and Seaspray (the pretty oceany blue) and it is super simple. I knit it on Size 9 circulars, really long ones, 32" I believe. The neutral colored rows are 6 rows of double-strand garter stich and the colored stripes are single strand stockinette (4 rows). The result is a lovely texture under my toes.


The worst part of the project (really the only unpleasant part) came from weaving in the ends. Like any striped project the ends were endless. I tried to weave as I went to save myself some aggravation, but knitting was always more fun than weaving and I wound up with a ton left at the end.

I may make another of these as a Christmas gift. If I do that I will need to come up with a non-skid surface for the bottom as it is really not nice to kill your loved ones with Christmas gifts.

I finished my Irish Hiking Hat today and am nearly through the scarf (although I think I need more yarn...). I also ordered some yarn for Christmas gifts. I will be giving nearly everyone on my gift list a handmade item this year, dammit, I will!