DIY Crocheted Rug with Fleece Strips

It's freezing cold this week in Michigan.  I'm all for the cold weather (more reason to drink something warm, and less possibility of the sun burning my arguably transleucent skin), but when the temperatures are in the twenties and teens it's hard to love my hardwood floors.

I recently picked up crocheting (hooray for YouTube videos that teach left-handed crochet!) and really wanted to make this beautiful, beautiful crocheted area rug from the Purl Bee.  

But the alpaca yarn they sold was over $150.00 a skein, and I'd need four to complete the rug.  Yikes.  

Instead, I used some fleece I had leftover from another attempted project and started crocheting a flat circle.

Here's where I'm at so far!

All this is is a flat crocheted circle, which is NOT a tough thing to make.  This can definitely be a project for crochet beginners!

One of my favorite things about this project is how quickly it's coming together.  It only took me about 40 minutes to get 2 feet of width!  

If you get your fleece on sale it should really be affordable, too.  Not to mention the whole rug will be machine washable!

You'll Need:

Fleece fabric cut into 1-inch strips (1 yard adds roughly 2 feet of width, buy as much as you need to achieve the size you want!)

A size Q crochet hook

Needle and thread (optional)

Round 1:  chain 4, then join the chain through the first loop with a slip dtitch.

Round 2:  chain 3, then double crochet into the center of the circle 11 times so you have 12 stitches total.

Round 3:  chain 3, double crochet into each chain stitch twice, so you have 24 stitches PLUS the chain stitch.

Round 4:  chain 3, double crochet into the first available stitch, then put two double crochets in the next stitch.  Continue this until you've used up all the available stitches.

Round 5:  chain 3, double crochet into the first snd second stitches, then put two double crochets into the third stitch.  Continue as above.

Keep increasing your pattern as above, adding an extra double crochet to every round, until you have the width you want.  If find it much, much eaier to watch a video tutorial than read a pattern, so if you're confused go a-YouTubing!

I'll update once it's finished!