DIY Nautical Rope Rug

So I saw this rope rug tutorial on Pinterest and I decided that I had to make it. I found her tutorial a little confusing so I will share with you what I did, and the wisdom I gained from doing it wrong.
I used:

• 160 feet of 1/2" thick twisted nylon rope (I bought almost 180 feet)- $23 at a salvage/surplus store

• A piece of newspaper 

• A permanent marker 

• Scissors 

• Knife 

• Lighter 

• Super glue 

• Duct tape

Here is how it started. I drew the rectangle as directed:

Here is the braiding She recommended practicing on a thinner piece of rope, but I found it to be harder than with the big piece :

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2. 

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6. 

That is the very first pass through of the rope. That is the general idea of what it looked like. All 180 feet of that rope is pretty heavy and it probably took around two hours to get to this point because I had to pull it through every single turn. Your arm will probably get tired. The website I got the tutorial from suggested gloves. I did not use any, but I did have several small paper cut like cuts on my hands and rope burn, so gloves probably would not hurt. Also, it is helpful to tape the general shape down until it gets a little more stable.

Then you go through every single section again: 

Here it is 4 of 8 passes through:

 Listen to the voice of experience here: Make sure on every single pass that you do not accidentally pass the rope under a previous section like I did here. 

It will save probably 5-10 hours worth of time, depending on when you notice (I noticed at the end) because you won't have to do things like this:

If you do have to do something like this, here is some advice: 

1. Pick a starting section and flatten all of those ropes out
2. Keep following the sections in pattern making sure to push the mistake the way you are going.
3. Keep going. It may take several passes through.
4. You will have to keep going until the twist makes it to an end and you can fix it from there.

 Here it is finished except for gluing. Cut off the excess rope and burn the ends so they don't fray. I forgot to take a picture of it "finished" finished. Once you get here take super glue and liberally coat the sections on the outside where the ropes overlap. The website I got the tutorial from wanted the middle glued too, however, I found that the rope was too tight to get under, the glue didn't stick well there anyway, and it held its shape in the middle pretty well. This rug appears to be pretty stable as it was shipped almost 3,000 miles as a Christmas present and looked none the worse. It is very, very heavy though. All in all it took, what I am going to estimate to be, about 20 hours (including the time I had to fix the mess up) to make. It only cost about $23 dollars for the rope, and the rest I had on hand. I thought that it was well worth the time. All in all it is not uncomfortable to stand on and appears as though it would hold up well.

If you do decide to make this, I have some hints:

1. Keep the rope very loose. Do not feel like you need to tighten it to keep it the size of the newspaper, it will make getting through much easier.
2. It is a lot easier to tighten the rope than it is to loosen it so you can keep weaving. 
3. Get very, very strong glue. The kind I had did not want to stick to the rope. 
4. Put a piece of brightly colored tape on the end of the rope you will be pulling through. When you have over 100 feet of rope in a pile, it makes it much easier to find the end of the rope if it is colored. 
5. A utility knife would probably be easier than what I had to cut the end of the rope. 
6. I cannot stress enough to go slow and make sure the rope does not get twisted and in the wrong place.

Did you try it? I would love to see pictures!