Inspiration for this crochet design comes of course from the beautiful Moroccan Berber rugs with their delicate and simple geometric patterns and network of diamonds. Above and later in this instruction you can see some pictures from Morocco and Atlas Mountains where the rugs originate from. I designed a simple diamond pattern for this crocheted version of the traditional weaved rugs. Because the weavers of the Berber rugs also weave topics and symbols from their own lives into the rugs I decided to leave the last row of diamonds open – like life is always incomplete and work in progress.

Rug on the cover is crocheted with a Finnish ribbon yarn called Novita Tuubi and gauge for different versions of the rug is mainly counted for Tuubi in this instruction. I recommend you to choose a light and thin (t-shirt) yarn/ribbon for this rug because the end result will be quite thick anyway due to tapestry crochet. I have also noticed that it is best for my wrists and shoulders to crochet a rug with light yarn suitable for hook size 8. When crocheting with two colours, it is also recommended to choose a smaller hook size than normally because then you won’t see through the other colour travelling inside the stitches.

Width of the rug is approximately 100 cm, which is the widest rug I myself have crocheted and found easy enough to work with (keeping the rug mostly in my lap during crocheting). You can also easily adjust the size of the rug and motifs if you want to and change colors like I have done here below. There are of course many Moroccan style patterns to be found in these rows of half double crochet. Google Beni Ouarain and you find a lot more inspiration for your own lovely design.

Hope you enjoy crocheting your own Moroccan style rug!

Materials

Yarn For example 5-6 kilo thin t-shirt yarn like Hoooked Zpagetti or ribbon yarn (like Novita Tuubi). I used 4-5 skeins of Tuubi and 2 skeins of black for the rug in the pictures.

Hook size 8 mm

Size width 100 cm x length 150 cm

Tension 16 hdc and 13 rows of Novita Tuubi = 20 cm x 20 cm, 15 hdc and 12 rows of t-shirt yarn = 20 cm x 20 cm (t-shirt yarn is 2-3 cm wide when opened, so it is quite thin)

Abbreviations (US crochet terms)

sl st slip stitch

ch chain stitch

sc single stitch

hdc half double crochet (half treble in UK)

I also use terms background colour/bg colour (white) and motif colour (black). Right side of the work = RS and wrong side of the work = WS.

Basics in a nutshell and some tricks I’ve noticed to be useful:

• In this tapestry crochet technique you work back and forth normally on both sides and all the stitches are crocheted into both loops.

• This rug is crocheted with half double crochets and widening the motif and decreasing the width are made one stitch at a time each row with changing the colour. Stitches are never added or decreased in this technique, because it uses the natural stitch pattern of half double crochet. The only thing changing is the colour. You see a chart for the rug below and as you see there are different versions for left-handed (at the end of the instruction) and right-handed. I hope that also helps you on the way. The chart shows the right side of the work and the half square at the beginning of each row means ch 2.

• When crocheting tapestry crochet you carry along the resting yarn inside the stitches. When switching colour, make the final yarn over with the new colour during the previous stitch. When working with this technique carry along the resting yarn during each stitch when crocheting the right side of the work. When crocheting the wrong side, don’t carry the resting yarn inside during the first stitch after a colour change.

• Remember to also keep both yarns on the wrong side of the work all the time.

• When changing colour, pull gently the yarn that you leave resting when taking a new colour on the hook. It tends to be a bit loose otherwise and it also affects the clear lines of the motifs.

• Stretch the rug sideways every now and then to make sure that the yarn inside the stitches is not too tight.

• If something looks unclear, you can first have a look at the basic pattern for crocheting diamonds which you can find here on my blog as an Adobe Spark –presentation as well.

• I also have the habit of crocheting one hdc into the same stitch as ch 2 at the beginning of each row (see the first picture below). At the end of the row I jump over the last hdc of the row and crochet the last hdc into ch 2 of the previous row (see the second picture below). I think this way the long sides of the rug are quite even and without any big holes.

Pattern

Chain 75 + 2 with bg colour (white). Follow the chart below, start from the bottom. The first half square marked with colour peach in the chart means these 2 chain stitches for turning the work.

Diamond pattern is a bit asymmetrical on purpose. If you look at the first row of the five diamonds in the chart below, there are always 12 hdc crocheted with white in each diamond between the black lines (see row 17). When you look at the row of 4 diamonds next to each other (which you can see in between the rows of 5 diamonds), the amount of white stitches is 13 (see row 30). I chose to crochet the rug this way because the lines in the original Beni Ouarain rugs are often very delicate, like freely drawn with a pencil, and I tried to incorporate some feeling from them when designing this rug.

1.-3. Crochet 1 hdc into the 3rd stitch from the hook. Crochet 1 hdc into each stitch = 75 hdc and ch 2 at the end of each row and turn the work.

You can of course choose to crochet more or less rows with the bg colour depending on how near the edge you want to place the motifs. If you crochet more rows than 3, I recommend you to crochet another yarn in same colour inside the rug to keep the shape of the rug right.

4. (WS) Start the first row of diamonds according the chart and join in the other colour (peach in the pictures, black in the chart) when making the first colour change. Crochet 8 hdc with the bg colour, and when you crochet the 9th hdc, make the last yarn over with the motif colour (see pictures 1 & 2 below). Lift the yarn of the bg colour to the wrong side and pull it tight. Crochet 1 hdc with the motif colour, but make the last yarn over back to bg colour (see pictures 3 & 4 below). Lift the yarn of motif colour to the wrong side and pull it tight if needed. Crochet 1 hdc with bg colour without the motif colour inside the stitch (see picture 5 below). Continue with 12 hdc with bg colour and crochet the motif colour inside each stitch. Last yarn over of the 12th hdc is again made with motif colour. Continue to the end of the row the same way, 1 hdc with the motif colour, 13 hdc with the bg colour according the chart. After crocheting the 5th point of the diamond, leave the yarn of the motif colour there and crochet the last 9 hdc with bg colour only. The motif colour is taken on the hook from here during the next row when you crochet the first 2 hdc with it (see picture 6 below).

5. (RS) Crochet 8 hdc with bg colour, but the last yarn over of 8th hdc with motif colour (picture 7 below). Crochet 1 hdc with motif colour (bg colour travelling inside the stitch). Crochet 2nd hdc with motif colour in the same way, but make the last yarn over back to bg colour. Continue with 12 hdc with bg colour and carry motif colour inside the stitches (the last yarn over of the 12th hdc with the motif colour though), 2 hdc with the motif colour. Repeat 4 times according the chart. After the last motif, crochet 9 hdc with bg colour.

6.-16. Continue widening the diamond motif according the chart. Widening is always made to the right side of the motif (and left-handed to the left side of the motif). This means that motif colour begins each row one stitch earlier than during the previous row (see the arrows pointing to this above in the pictures).

The shorter arrow in picture 8 above also shows how to take the motif colour on the hook when crocheting the first diamond motif of the row on the wrong side of the work (the yarn is left there during the previous row).

17. (RS) Diamond pattern has now reached its widest point. Crochet 2 hdc with bg colour, make the last yarn over with motif colour. Crochet 1 hdc with motif colour and carry along bg colour inside the stitch. Crochet the 2nd hdc with motif colour, but make the last yarn over back to bg colour. Crochet 12 hdc with bg colour, 2 hdc with motif colour and repeat to the end of the row.

18. (WS) Time to start decreasing the width of the diamonds. This row is crocheted the same way as row 16 – and the following row like row 15 etc. When decreasing the width, always crochet 1 hdc with motif colour into the stitch which was also crocheted with motif colour during the previous row (see picture on the left below, arrows point to this stitch). The actual decreasing is made when crocheting the left side of the motif (and left-handed right side of the motif). 1 hdc with the motif colour is crocheted one stitch before than during the previous row (see the picture on the right side below, arrows point to this stitch).

19.-29. Continue decreasing the width of the diamond pattern according the chart.

30. This row is similar to row 4. The first row of diamonds ends here and the second starts.

Continue crocheting the diamond pattern according the chart. If you want to leave the last diamond motif open, crochet according the chart to row 90. Crochet 3 (or more) rows with bg colour. Weave in the ends, add tassels or a fringe if you like and enjoy the result. :-)