The instructions say the crocheted mat would be 19"x 30". Mine seemed a lot larger than that. Folded in half, it came about the size of my blue mat.
When we moved into Mom's house in 2006, the 1969 bathmat was still in use. It had a six inch hole where something had come unraveled in nearly 40 yrs, but was still intact enough to use when folded in half.
I didn't want to keep the threadbare yellow mat, but I loved the Footprint Bathmat. The answer? Make another one, in the color I prefer -- blue. Only I didn't want to crochet it; I wanted to knit it. The other problem was the bathroom had been remodeled since I made the first mat. The long bathtub had been replaced by an enclosed shower. There amount of floor space to hold a bathmat had changed. The original mat was about two times too large now.
So -- I had my task. Reinvent the bathmat in knit. The new mat is 23" x 28" without fringe. The mat is 48 stitches wide and 80 rows high. I adapted the cross stitch footprints making them shorter. The cross stitches were made over the rows of knitting. The original feet were nearly 4 inches longer and equally wider than a human foot. The new footprint is about the same as a man's size 12 feet. I haven't scanned the footprint chart yet. If I do, I'll post it on the blog.
One more thing -- about yarn. Over nearly 40 yrs., things have changed a bit. My first bathmat wore so well because it was made of cotton rug yarn. The second, blue rug, was made of cotton craft yarn. This isn't as durable as rug yarn. It strings and mats every time I wash it.
I haven't found cotton rug yarn lately. Aunt Lydia's rug yarn is now an acrylic that doesn't have the "hand" that the older yarn had. I don't think there is as much in as skein as there used to be either, but that may be my memory going. If you make either version of this mat, please try to find COTTON RUG YARN. If cotton isn't a choice, try at least for rug yarn.
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