How to Make a Braided Rug Without Really Knowing What You're Doing

I am making a braided rug. It's my very first time, unless you count the attempt when I attended an American Girl tea party when I was little, and after I finished braiding the rug I realized I wasn't done yet, so I gave up. I don't count that time, though "I'm still not done?" has crossed my mind a few times during this project. However, being the strict disciplinarian that I am, I've told myself that I can't start on any of the fun, groovy projects I have planned that will make me look awesome until the rug is done. This is how far I am:

Don't be deceived. It's not as cute as it looks, sitting on my brick patio. It's lumpy, you can see my messy stitching that took me forever to decide how I wanted to do it, and it's also still pretty small. Still, I feel accomplished, because I did most of it while watching shows and that means I was productive! Yay!

This is only my third attempt, which is about how many attempts it takes to complete a project for me. There were a couple techniques involved that I learned a long time ago, but had to re-learn for this project. For example, you can't simply tie the pieces of fabric together when your fabric strips run out. You have to do a special, small knot that won't feel uncomfortable when you step on the rug. It's hard to explain how it's done, so I doodled the instructions out for you:

First, you put the two strips of fabric, one on top of the other, matching corners. The bottom one will be the old strip and the top one will be the new one that you want to attach to your braid. See that dotted line? That's where you make a little snip with your scissors through both strips of fabric, making sure that you don't cut up to the top. You want a little hole there.

Next, take the top strip's tail and wrap it around to the back of both strips of fabric with the top strip still in its position. (P.S. Are these doodles helping at all? Blink twice for "yes".)

Finally, while holding the strips together tightly, pull the strip's tail through the hole until it forms a pretty little knot. Sometimes the top strip misbehaves, but mess with it until you have a knot. There you have it!