So here’s the story. Someone in my online+Zoom knitting group that I’ve been in for years decided to throw out an idea: how about if anyone who wanted to were to knit a little something for some random other person in the group? Something that was adaptable to all skill levels and universally usable. You wouldn’t be told who yours was coming from, just whom to give to.

How about a knitted coaster, only, they didn’t call it a coaster, it was instantly dubbed a mug rug. Mugrug? I mean, how can you not love a name like that? (Maybe this was an old word to the others, I don’t know, but it was a new one on me.) The group mod offered to do the name drawings and I exclaimed, Oh COOL! quite out loud a few days later when I read whom she’d assigned me to.

And so began the hunt for just the right shade of purple Mecha that was finally found at the eighth and for us last local shop in the Bay Area Yarn Crawl that Nina and I went gallivanting on these past two Saturdays.

Half the skein from Aranea became the darker color here; the lavender was a leftover from some other project.

And here’s what it looks like on the two sides.

I wanted it thick and dense so it would be hard for leaks to get through. I wanted it washable, of course. I wanted it soft. I wanted it pretty. I wanted it purple for someone who loves a good hand dyed merino yarn but especially in those shades.

And it needed to be flat. It is. Even if the edges draw up lengthwise a bit, they don’t curl. (I *knew* that garter stitch creates shorter rows than intarsia’d stockinette but I forgot till there it was, so, there it is–and for this piece I find it more interesting that way anyway.)