Crochet rug - no holes!

By justdunny

Crochet completed in rounds without turning over, but with no holes to create corners. Makes a smooth dense crochet fabric in double crochet without the ridges you get if you turn the work over and work back and forth.
Makes a very warm rug from very cheap acrylic yarn!

Final Result

Materials

Any yarn
Crochet hook to suit (I mostly use 8-ply and a 4 mm crochet hook, but most would use a 3 to 3.5 mm hook)

Step 1

NOTE: photo is not of the centre of a square, but working around the outside edge.
Make a centre for the square.
Ch 6, join into ring with sl st.
2 ch, 16 tr into ring, join to beg ch with sl st. Makes 17.
1 ch as first st, 1 dc into each of next 4 tr. Now the trick!
That makes one side of a square, turn the work clockwise 90 degrees.

Step 2

Continue on the second side -
1 ch, 1 dc into the same st as the last st worked.
NOTE - the first dc in each row shares one tr at the corner.

Step 3

1 dc into next 4 tr. Second side is complete. Turn work 90 degrees clockwise again.
Repeat step 2 for the remaining two sides.

Step 4

This will bring you to the last tr in beginning ring. To complete the square, 1 dc into the ch that started the first side. This will leave you no alternative but to turn the work to begin the second round of dc.

Step 5

Continue in this manner, as desired. Just work to the ch st in corner, turn 90 degrees, 1 dc into same place as last dc worked and continue in dc.
In the work pictured, I have created squares, joined, then worked continuously. The off-set centres in the squares are created simply by working extra rows of a colour on two sides of a square. You can either join the colour at the beginning of an extra round, or turn work OVER and work extra row/s. Turning over will produce the ridge effect of a "wrong side" row. Joining is fiddly, but gives a very smooth fabric.

Step 6

TROUBLESHOOTING:
If row seems too short, you may not be working right up to the ch st in the corner. This st feels different to the dc to work.
If row seems too long and the corner seems to stick out more than it would if it was square, you may be working into the body of the last dc worked as well as the space it was worked.