Rug Made from Old Used White Socks

I have a pile of socks with holes in them that are beyond darning. I took all my white socks (for dying purposes) and cut the non-elastic part into loops.

After I had a pile of loops, I stretched each loop.

Then I made a chain with them. I rolled up the chain into a gigantic ball.

Then I used a rug crochet hook to crochet the "yarn" into a rug. I made a basic oval shape (three single crochet in each end of a loop and two in between on each side), then just kept single crocheting in the back loops of that oval adding an extra single crochet in a loop when needed to keep the oval flat. When I got to the finished size, I just slip stitched for a few loops to make the end less noticeable. (I am sure if you need a pattern if you found an oval rug pattern for rags it would work. It isn't the funnest "yarn" to work with because of the knots and the cut socks shed quite a bit, but it isn't as horrible as working with that fake fur yarn stuff you can get now.)

Then I soaked it for an hour in 4 parts cold water, 1 part vinegar to help it take the dye.

Then I dyed it in my black walnut dye overnight. Use rubber gloves unless you want to dye your hands too.

Then I rinsed it until the water ran pretty clean. Took a lot of the dye out, so it was lighter than I thought it was going to be, but still a nice tan color. Maybe if I had let it dry into the fabric instead of rinsing it right away it might have been darker (I will try this the next time!)

I threw it in the washing machine with a bunch of rags to counterbalance the rug during the spin cycle. I did have to cut off a few threads and it took awhile to dry on the line, but nice and cushy!

It matched the bathroom pretty well, color is relative with my photographs so here are a few to kinda show you the color.