Guest Author - Iris ten Holder

Round rugs require a special type of design. There are two types of round rugs – circular and radial. A circular rug consists of concentric circles, which are knitted from the center in a circular fashion until the desired diameter has been reached.

In a radial rug, the diameter is determined beforehand when the stitches are cast on. and the size of the rug cannot be altered. In its simplest form a radian rug consists of 10 to 12 wedges, as in a pie. Further subdivisions will increase design and color options.

Although design and colors can be uniform throughout the rug, there is more intrigue if there is a dark side. When designing a theme rug, there is ample opportunity to do this.

A forest in autumn is ablaze with yellow, orange and red sections amid the green ones. A darker section representing a forest path will add depth and contras. Some unpredictability in the design of a rug will give the spectator some pause to consider its meaning. Therefore, this design lends itself well to artistic interpretations.

Recently, I developed a design based on the planet earth. In this the dark side is the ocean and soil; the light side is found in the blue of the sky, the light and the sun. Green sections between these two represent trees and plant life. Earth rugs tend to be quite colorful as they represent nature in all its aspects and may include all colors of the rainbow.

Earth rugs lend themselves to different interpretations, depending on the seasons or other factors, such as the seasons. Sometimes we want to conserve the memory of a natural event. A Tsunami would show the dark depth of the ocean and the white ridges of the waves. Someone who has actually witnessed a tornado may be able to convey this in a rug design. Northerners, such as I, could convey the cold season by leaving out the lush green and replacing it with which stark tree trunks among the bluish white snow.

Themes can thus be based on events in our lives, personal preferences or ideas. Once a theme has been chosen, the next step is to determine which colors would best represent this theme, and then arrange these colors. From this perspective many different color combinations may be created.

Of course this not a pictorial art. What is important is that the mood or the ideas is represented by spacing the colors around the rug. The result will always be abstract.

For example, tulips field can be represented by bands of yellow and red in one part, while blue sky and tulip-like triangles form the other part of the rug.

Designing is fun. The process is simple and the most important step is to start with a clear idea.

Select a theme - a memorable event, a landscape, and a flag
Select the colors to represent the different aspects of this theme.
Determine the proportions of the colors according to their importance.
Compose a rug based on these proportions.

The outcome will be a visual representation of the theme – a magic circle.

Note:
Radial rugs are composed of 10 to 12 segments that form a circle, with the colors radiating from the center. To knit such a rug, cast on sufficient stitches for half the width of the rug and then knit the wedge-shape segments by leaving two stitches on the needle on the return (every second needle). This way fewer rows reach the center, while on the outside all rows are knitted. Once all stitches are on the other needle, one segment has been completed. To start the next segment, all stitches are knitted again and the same procedure is followed. After 10 to 12 of these segments, the circle is completed.

Other articles go in more detail on how to construct such a rug. The focus in this article was on the design according to a theme.