Borders are never boring

Beautiful Sia, Don’t Bring Me Down

Borders take some time to do if you make them quite wide. Sometimes all that a rug needs is a small little border.

If the centre of the rug is very busy and bright, a dark neutral border may add to it and sometimes a busy and bright border may detract from it. It’s all about balance I guess.

Sometimes it’s nice to hook a verse or quotation in the border, but, keep in mind, this border will be a bit wider to fit in all the lettering.

My Great Grandmother’s rugs usually had a black or navy border. She used whatever materials she had on hand, and did like the brighter colours in the body of the mat.

Sometimes a border can be the edging of the rug, such as a a crochet edge, braided edge, or a wide binding of some sort. I have done all three and each one creates a very different look for your mat.

The above is a crochet edge. It could be made wider, such as the picot crochet edge featured below:

This was a fun border to hook, it involved one row of slip-stitch crochet then the picot edge. I like the effect it gave. Would this be durable for the floor? I do use heavy wool yarn, but really, many people are not going to use these mats as the traditional welcome, wipe your muddy boots on mat. If they do, that is fine, but of course nothing will last very long if it is continually trod upon with force and dirt wiped on it.

Below is a lamb’s tongue border that I really like; I have not done this one again, and have been thinking I will for the current rug I’m working on.

I must admit, the braided border was not a picnic to do. I am a terrible sew-er. I refuse to spell sew-er properly, as to me, it looks like SEWER, the place where waste goes lol.