FO: Kiki Mariko Rug

A finished Kiki Mariko rug laying on a field of rocks.

After years of wanting to make a Kiki Mariko rug, and about 10 months knitting it, I thought the felting would be the hard part. Turns out that throwing it in the washing machine for a few cycles was the fastest easiest part of the whole process. The actual hard part is figuring out where I’m going to put it. It’s too big to go under my desk, and I already have a rug next to my bed. Maybe I can find a good spot for it in my crafty space. In the mean time, it looks pretty good rolled up next to my yoga mat.

The Kiki Mariko rug before felting showing both the outside stitches and inside floats.

This project has been in my queue since the pattern was first published in 2008. I had this idea that it’d be a really fun knit and I was not disappointed. There was a chunk of time when it stayed shoved in a bag, but I couldn’t put it down the rest of the time. So it turned out to be a really fast knit.

To keep things interesting, I decided to not follow along with the listed stripe sequence in the pattern and kept colors random. I also gave myself a couple of rules when I cast on. One, do not repeat colors within a pattern repeat. I was able to stick to this one. Two, try not to always pair the same colors together. If purple and yellow were paired up in one section, the next time I’d pair purple with green. I always tried to keep the combinations as high contrast as possible, but I did have to cut myself some slack as yardage got low.

An in-progress shot of a steek being cut with red scissors.

After binding off, the color work tube just hung out for a bit. A mix of a daily life and building up the confidence to try felting (not a technique I’ve done much intentionally), held things up. Eventually, I just got on with it and shoved the thing into a sweater bag and then into a washing machine. It took a few cycles in a front loading machine to finally see a difference, but the rug still felted enough to steek in an afternoon. This wasn’t my first time, but cutting that steek open was so satisfying. I almost want to make another rug just to do it again.

The front and back of the felted Kiki Mariko rug.

Now that the ends are trimmed, I’m calling this Kiki Mariko rug done. It is colorful and fun and making it was everything I hoped for. The only downside was/is that the yarn and now the rug sheds a lot. My clothes looked like I’d snuggled a shedding dog after working on it for an evening. Even felting didn’t change that. Build up a little static electricity (easy to do around here) and all the fly-away hairs will stand straight up. Eek! I’m hoping it won’t be too much of an issue now that I’m walking on it and not turning it over and over in my lap. Time will tell. Even with the shedding, I still love this rug. Looking at it makes me so happy, whether it’s on a table, rolled up in a corner, or warming a spot on the floor.

A shallow view of the Kiki Mariko rug showing off the stitch detail and color repeats.

The Pattern: Kiki Mariko by Kay Gardiner and Ann Shayne (Ravelry Link)

Yarn: 10 Skeins Brown Sheep Lamb’s Pride Bulky (10 colors total)

Needle: US 15 (10 mm) circular needles

Dates: May - February 2021

Close up view of the edge of the Kiki Mariko and the cut steek.

Around Here - November 2019

There’s been lots of small great things happening around here. Let’s catch up!

Last weekend, I packed up the family and headed up to the Boulder Handweavers Guild and Sale. It’s always interesting walking around and seeing what all the different fiber artists in the area are getting up too. There were knitted items of all kinds from tiny baby booties to giant shawls. There were beautiful woven clothes, hand dyed silk scarves, felted bowls, as well as yarn and fiber. I also saw some really cool crocheted t-shirt yarn baskets which made me want to give crochet another try.

We spotted a beautiful handwoven rag rug that had to come home with us too. The rug is cushy to stand on, a good size, and has great colors. Said rug is also the first thing we bought for our new place! I’m looking forward to having more room to spread out, and plenty of space for the kiddo to play.

Much progress has been made on kiddo’s Fall sweater. It’s taken a back seat the last few days to other overdue projects, but the sweater has still come a long way in the past week. The yoke is finished, the sleeves are bound off, and now I’m working through the body. It’s been great autopilot knitting to pick up at random moments throughout the day. Still looking for buttons though.

Remember the hat I was trying to make in the likeness of the Trinidad and Tobago flag? I finally figured out how to make the stripes slope in the correct direction! Charting out the rewrites really helped. Now I’m past the spot where I stopped on the first attempt and quickly moving towards the grafting. Who knew I’d be so excited about kitchener stitch.

I decided to take on a project for a friend that sounded so fun I couldn’t resist. That grey and dark grey yarn above? That’s the yarn I’m using, and I don’t think I’ve even been so excited to knit with so much grey. More details on that later.