Sep
23

Free Project: Recycled Towel Bath Mat


I have this fancy, new application that although not technically made for blogger, still allows me to pull comments and repost them. Up until now, I hadn’t had a reason to use it, but one of yesterday’s posts seems a perfect opportunity!

“I can’t wait for this book! I love finding new things to use as “yarn” for projects, especially since I’m on a tight budget right now.
I cut up old towels to crochet into a bathmat once, and it was great because the towels still served their purpose of soaking up water.”

Originally posted as a comment by Diyod on Vickie Howell using Disqus.

DIYOD reminded of my own knitted towel mat, I made a few years back. Adrienne and I were originally going to include a version of this project in Stitch Hugger but ditched it (along with a few others) due to time constraints.  I dug into the ol’ photo folder archives though and found some (badly lit) example shots.

Knitting with towel strips, is a wee bit messy.  If you don’t mind pulling out the vacuum to clean up a ton o’ terry bits though, it’s a great project for breathing new life into old bath blankets!

What you’ll need:


3-5 Towels (I found these 60’s beauties at a thift store)
Size US 36 (20mm) Needles (I recommend using circulars, to take the strain off your wrists)
Rotary Cutter OR (if you were blessed with the virtue of patience), Scissors
What you do:
Cut up towels into 1″(ish) strips.
Tie the strips together (just using a plain knot), from end to end.  If the knotted look bugs you though, you can get fancy by sewing the strips instead.  Knock yourself out. 😉
Roll “Terryarn” into a ball.
Cast on 24 sts.  Knit every row (garter stitch), until mat reaches desired height.  Bind off.
Trim knot ends to about 1 1/2″, if necessary.
Happy repurposing!
xo, Vickie

filed under Eco-Awareness, Free Projects, Knitting/Crochet.

One Response to “Free Project: Recycled Towel Bath Mat”

  1. Doreen

    Or you could cut the corners off your towels and cut starting at one corner and cut 1 inch wide strip in a continuos strip until you runout of towel in the center. No knots except where you join towel together. When knitting you won’t notice the curve to the fabric.