Kiki Mariko

Time to get another TV knitting project going.  I couldn’t see starting another cowl after finishing three in a row, but I wasn’t yet done with circular needles, so I turned to one of my Mason-Dixon knitting books and cast on a Kiki Mariko rug.

So many good things will be accomplished with this project:

I’ll have a rug to replace the old towel currently protecting the carpet in front of our sliding glass door.

I will get rid of at least half of a very large bag of Lamb’s Pride bulky yarn that I’ve been collecting when it went on sale.  So much space will be created in the yarn storage!

I will not have more cowls right away.  There is no need for more cowls.

I will get to knit with size 15 needles, which amuse me with every stitch – so big! So shiny! Musical metallic tings with every stitch.

I will get a rug to replace the Kiki Mariko that I knit some years ago and lost during a move.

(My kids loved that project.  I can’t believe how small they were then!)

This rug is knit as a huge, loose tube with a steek.  After felting, the steek is cut and a flat, dense, tough rug is the result.  You can see how much it shrinks in the before and after photos above.  In official measurements, it went from one full kid to 3/4s of a kid.

It is a very quick knit.  Each row adds about 3/4s of an inch in length.  Other than wrestling the stitches around the thick tube of the circular needle, it is about as easy a stranded patterns as it is possible to make.

Let the vacation knitting begin!  (I am officially on Winter Break in 4 minutes.  Go, clock, go!)