A few days (weeks?) later, I started braiding the strips, hand-sewing the ends together. This was much harder than I thought it would be. I worked on it bit by bit in the evenings, and finally decided to start coiling the braid around itself to form my little round rug. I hand-sewed the rug together, and at long last was finished! It was smaller than I had planned (I got tired of braiding and tossed out a wad of towel strips), but it was my first real creation, something hand-made by me. I placed it proudly on the bathroom floor, and couldn’t wait to step on it the next morning.

The rug was soft and wonderful as expected. I proudly showed it off to friends, and gave it goo-goo eyes every time I went to the bathroom. It had been in our bathroom all of two days when The Rug Incident occurred.

I came home from work, said hi to Roux, our perfect, loveable, cute and cuddly cat, and stepped into the bathroom. There, on my precious rug, was a puddle of cat vomit. Why Roux chose my rug as his vomit-spot is still a mystery. We tried washing the rug, letting it air dry, tossing it in the dryer…but it is still stinky, not-soft, and misshapen.

I humbly present to you my first crafty creation: Roux’s Rug.