Mr Fiction Ed’s Seat Rug

Some strange dust gets Fiction Editor Shirley using her craft skills at home!

Mr Fiction Ed has started leaking black dust.

He spends a lot of time working on his vegetable plot, but it’s not that earthy kind of grime. This is blacker.

He’s maybe always done it, of course, and I’ve only just begun to notice. How?

What were we thinking?

Well, we recently made the impulsive decision to replace our worn-out armchairs with new ones and chose leather recliners. Cream leather. I don’t know what possessed us. And now every so often when he stands up he’ll leave a black smudge behind. We can’t figure it out. His trousers aren’t dirty, it’s not his hands….

So, since I can’t make him stand all evening to watch the telly, I’m making him a little seat rug.

I’ve also just bought a new cushion to brighten up the sofa. I’ll buy another now that I know it goes ok. So I thought I’d try to make his seat rug match.

A time to crochet

I’m a knitter, never been a crocheter. But it’s crochet I’m tackling this time. I’ve looked out lots of odds and ends of yarn in the same colours as the cushion, and I thought crochet might be more forgiving of the result as I run them together in not-quite stripes.

I’m following the stitch instructions I found in a book titled First Crochet by Lesley Stanfield (C&B Crafts).

I’ve decided on a stitch termed treble, which is nice and chunky. And I’m using chunky yarns.

I started with 80 chain and a 4.5mm hook – actually, a blue plastic one that I got free somewhere decades ago! And I’m just working back and forth as the instructions say. This is what I’m doing:

First row: Miss 3 chain, 1 treble in next chain, and in each chain to end.

Second row: 3 chain. 1 treble in next treble, and in each treble to end, ending with 1 treble on the top chain of the three chain.

And I’ll just keep going, joining in different colours to kind of match my new cushion, until I think the rug’s big enough to cover the seat.

Wish me luck!

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