Rag rug project - take one

Necessity is the mother of invention, and lack of funds is the mother of creative house solutions.
We got rid of the carpet because it was old, vile, and nasty. But winter is arriving and it brings with it coldness to the laminate flooring that isn't so nice for the wee feeties that populate this household.
So, a rug is necessary. I stalk craigslist pretty well, but finding something that isn't awful or nearly as much as buying new is just not happening this time. I mean, some of these rugs are hideous! or aqua. or both.
I got the idea of using old T shirts to make a rug. Why not? The material is usually cotton, won't fray, and can usually be gotten for cheap or free. I posted on a local list asking, and scored a stack of old T shirts for free!

Give me your holey, stained, and shrunken...

Cutting up a T shirt is pretty easy, since it's a tube. You start at the bottom and spiral your way around and around until you run into the armpit and can't go anymore. You get a pretty good ball of fabric and the leftover tops can be used in some other project down the line. Potholders or something. Rah!

So I got to cutting. I discovered that cutting T shirts leaves something like T shirt dandruff all over the place. Should you try this, don't wear a black shirt like I did.

Take one before I tore it down.

Trial one was my first idea - log cabin style. But it wasn't working out because I kept needing more T shirt to get to the end of the way to turn around. So I ripped this out and started over. Word to the wise - ripping it out means more T shirt dandruff. Everywhere.

Take two, when gravity was still working.

Trial number two was going great, for a while. It wasn't exactly square but it was doing okay. I figured gravity would kick in at some point. But as it got larger, it got wavier. I thought adding some extra chain stitches at the corner would help it turn the corner a bit, but no... that didn't help either. I really don't know what I'm doing when it comes to crochet, but they don't make knitting needles big enough to make a rug... unless I knit a bunch of squares and sew them together. That's starting to look attractive.
So anyway, I was mad at the flappy rug but Joe told me to just fasten it off and use it as a back door mat. So that's what I did.

Back door mat. Bonus anti-gravity features.

I still need a living room rug. I still have a stack of T shirts here. We'll see what happens.