Magic Mug Rug

If you’ve never actually met me before, let me tell you a fundamental thing about myself: I love Disney. Like many people growing up during the animation renaissance, all of those films were the defining media that shaped my childhood.

One of those films has been at the forefront of my mind recently, with it’s new, live-action remake in theaters right now. So I was doodling, imagining unbelievable sights and indescribable feelings, and decided to show my coffee cup a whole new world with this Magic Mug Rug.

I decided that tapestry crochet was the way to go, since it needed four colors. It also makes the rug pretty sturdy and reversible, which will be great when I inevitably spill tea on one side. While I had done tapestry crochet before, it was only with two colors. Four was, indeed, an adventure…

Emma’s tips for tapestry crochet with four colors:

Pick a yarn with high twist. Speaking from experience, splitting is an extra, unnecessary headache when you’re juggling four yarns.
Crochet over the other yarns when you aren’t using them.
Your color-change starts on the last step of the stitch before, and make sure the new color gets pulled to the back of the work.
Tapestry crochet is usually done in the round, so you don’t have to worry about carrying up your extra colors. Since the mug rug is worked flat, before you make your turning chain, wrap the gold yarn under your other colors. This will lock your currently-unused colors in place for the next row.
Your yarns will always be tangled. Embrace the chaos.

If none of that makes sense, I made a little video:

Without further ado, here’s how to make a Magic Mug Rug of your own:

Gather your materials:

Four colors of worsted weight yarn: gold, purple, red, and blue if you’re going for the original Carpet look
Size I hook, or whatever size gives you coverage over your unused colors
Something to make little tassels with (I used a fork)
Scissors and tapestry needle

To start, chain 19 with your gold yarn. Using the tapestry crochet technique, work the following chart in single crochet:

When you’ve finished that, weave in your ends, make four little tassels out of your gold yarn, and attach them to the corners of your mug rug. Set your cup on it. Show it a new, fantastic point of view.