Is this crochet?

[samanthashep]

My mom has asked for a rug like this for her birthday... at first glance I thought it was a crochet rug... but I can't figure out what stich this might be. I thought perhaps it was center single crochet? Any ideas on if this is or isn't would be so helpful please. 

Side question... anyone have a recommendation on yarn to use? I'm thinking of hoooked spesso chunky... it's a cotton yarn with 24 small strands twisted together. Hoping that would give nice texture and allow for the beautiful fringe. But is 100% cotton for a mat a bad idea?

[Granny Square]

It's knit, the edges and edge-matching stripes are garter stitch (purled on both sides) and the smooth stripes are stockinette (knit on the front, purl on the back - notice the edges of the smooth strips are garter stitch too - this is because stockinette stitch edges curl, but garter doesn't.

Cotton for a rug is traditional, they used to sell 'rug yarn' that was cotton but a little heaver than the 'kitchen cotton' that you'd use for washcloths etc.

Waistcoat stitch which I think is the same as short SC (which I'm not sure is the same as center SC, you stick your hook more or less in the center of the SC for both, not just under the top loops, so maybe), is typically worked in the round, I believe, because the front isn't the same as the back.

You might try a swatch of a row of sc, followed by a row of *sc, triple, repeat; and repeat those 2 rows a few times for a bumpy stripe.  The sc on either side, above and below the triple makes the triple have to 'sit down' and poke out, so the fabric is a sort of flat background with bumps on 1 side (if they protrude to the wrong side just poke them back).  You want to alternate the placement of the triples every other triple row so they are in between the triples 2 rows below.  It's a lengthy description but really simple.  That would be the bumpy row, then the alternate all-smooth row would be several rows of sc.

 

[samanthashep]

Thank you thank you thank you!!! The detail in your response has well surpassed my expectations of getting an answer... so impressed and grateful. Can't think of a better welcome into this community than receiving expert advice and opinion like this. 

Thank you @Granny Square!! I'm going to take you up on your swatch recommendation!

Edited January 23, 2021 by samanthashep

[Granny Square]

You're very welcome.  There are a lot of other textured stitches you could play with too, to alternate with plain SC stripes if the 'little bumps' pattern I suggested is not to your liking - one site with a bunch of them is https://newstitchaday.com/ , go to stitchionary, then crochet stitches.