Hookin’ a rug.

I’m a big fan of Ikea’s RENS sheepskin rug. I loved the one I owned. I loved it so much it appeared in several of my house photos, like these:

And then, in a fateful turn of events, Suge peed on it. Not a tinkle, no, a whole pee all over the thing. And because Ikea strictly tells you “No wash! No rinse!” I threw the thing out in a fit of rage. OK, not really in a rage, but I was annoyed.

My annoyance continued when I discovered Ikea raised the price of the RENS rug from $24.99 to $29.99. I normally wouldn’t balk at the new price but $30 (or even $25) is a big price to pay for something that your dog likes to repeatedly practice his golden shower skills on, guaranteeing continual replacement costs.

That’s when my version of RENS comes in. It needed to be dirt-friendly (not white), washable and inexpensive. After doing some investigative work, I came across this tutorial on Xoelle and adapted it to meet my own needs.

The materials are the same, but the process is a little different. Here’s my version.

I started with a large piece of latch rug canvas. Here’s the exact material and size I bought, which should give me enough material to do 3-4 rugs, if I wanted to:

Using the photo of RENS online as my guide, I sketched out the shape and size I wanted onto the canvas using a marker.

And then after cutting out the shape, I secured the edges (to ensure the canvas doesn’t break apart while you’re working on it) with my trusty pink duct tape.

Next comes the fun part. Because it was important that the rug material be washable, pliable (so it would fold over a chair or couch, like the RENS) and somewhat dog-friendly, I picked up 4 yards of feathered gray jersey knit material (almost identical to the old t-shirt route Xoelle uses) from JoAnn’s. The stuff is so soft!

Next, it was time to cut my strips. The tutorial recommended 1″ w x 4″ h strips, which is what I did as well. To guarantee consistency and just overall ease for gettin’ ‘er done, I used a fabric format cutter and a format mat to make my cuts.

Then, with my bag full of strips, my latch hook and my canvas, I sat down on the couch, watched True Blood with Aaron and hooked away. (Ha.) If you haven’t guessed it already, I’m using the loop and latch process to get the strips onto the canvas.

It dawned on me at this point that this rug is going to take a looooong time for me to finish. Here’s how far I got after about two hours or so of working on it.

The length of time is also being complicated by how dense I’m wanting the fabric to be. I chose to use every other available space in a brick-type pattern to make sure the finished rug is nice and thick. Here’s a look at what I mean by the brick pattern:

I estimated it took 2 hours to get 5 lines done. I have 50 more lines to go which means I have another 20 hours to put into this little rug before calling it complete. I didn’t really mean to sign myself up for a part-time job with this rug project but it’s so soft and cute I’m totally hooked and can’t wait to see it complete.

p/s: Among the RENS rug, Suge has also ruined/damaged/injured my beloved West Elm Zig Zag rug, my still-new bronze lamp in my bedroom, the wood trim around my fireplace and my Karlstad sofa. And, this all happens between the hours of 6 pm – 11 pm each day, as he’s crated while I’m at work. He’s a jerk of a puppy but I love him.