Upcycling climbing rope

Have you heard of upcycling? It's the process of turning waste materials into something of better quality. Basically, instead of throwing away or putting something into the recycling bin, upcycling is a fancy word for reusing something that is otherwise useless. Do you do this?

The Englishman* is a climber and even though I got into climbing before him, he really got me to enjoy the sport and push myself to get better. Recently, he decided that for safety reasons, it is high time to buy some new climbing ropes. Great! But what do we do with the old ones? He's got over 10 years of blood, sweat, mud, rock and a bit of groaning soaked into these ropes. The memories are too precious to let go of. The ropes are actually still in great condition, they just are not deemed safe enough to hold a falling climber anymore. Here's what we decided to do with at least one of them:

The instructions for making this rug are super simple with the illustrations shown by Animated Knots by Grog. And I love that this still captures the essence of climbing (and it reminds me of knots in sailing too!!). It's the perfect doormat!

If you want to find more fun things that you can upcycle check out UpcycleThat, this upcycling pinterest board, and this from TwistedSifter. Do you have any other ideas?

*The Englishman - I'm trying out nicknames for my wonderful boyfriend. But for privacy purposes, I don't want to share his name online. After a terrible stalking incident a couple years ago, I am much more protective of my personal information and that of those around me. I hope you can all respect that.