Beach-Inspired Placemats (Project Notes)
Last week I shared a little tale about a measuring mishap. This week, I’m happy to say the finished project is off the loom — six placemats, all woven slightly off-centred on my loom, yet all exactly the same size. Yay me!
I thought about writing up the pattern, but it’s so simple, I wanted to just share with you what I did. Here’s a rough guide / pattern-style recipe. Feel free to choose your own colours. For mine, I used six colours, with a bright pop of red on the edges — the recipients love the beach and the ocean and the colour red. So the palette was inspired by sun, sand, and sea.
Warp
Yarn: Gist Beam 3/2 cotton in your choice of colours - I used 6. A bright pop on the edges works well! I faded from darker at the edges to paler colours in the center, then back out to the darker colours. This produced a fabric that feels very peaceful.
Warp length: 172" (approximately 4.4 m) for 6 placemats
Reed: 12-dent (or 12.5)
Ends: 94 slots = 188 ends total
Width in the reed: 15.5"
Colouring: I faded randomly from one colour to the next for subtle transitions. It did mean a little rearranging of ends in the reed after warping but it wasn’t hard. This is a good way to force yourself to be random! I was using 5 main colours and had 15” to work with so I knew I had about 3” for each colour. And don’t over do the edge pop…a little goes a long way!
Weaving
For each placemat:
Plain weave 22" hemstitching in bundles of 4 at each end.
I used 2 warping sticks between each placemat to keep the fringe length the same.
After removing from the loom, cut the fringe between the two sticks for clean, even edges.
I split-plied at the bobbin changes. I used a boat shuttle and needed 2 bobbins to complete a single placemat. If you use a stick shuttle, you might be able to weave a full placemat without running out of weft on your shuttle.
My picks per inch was 9. This is important…if you have a different ppi for each placemat, they will finish to different sizes! Be sure to check frequently.
Weaving
Weft Colours:
I chose the middle three colours of my warp and wove two placemats in each colour. This ensured I didn’t run out of weft, but also made all the placemats coordinate beautifully. And since I used the lighter colours, it added to the peaceful feel.
Finishing
Wash in warm water
Dry on high heat
Press both sides, trimming any any tails as you press
Trim fringe to ¾"
Because they’re a gift, I repeated the wash–dry–press cycle to ensure they were fully fulled before wrapping them up.
After wet finishing and pressing, the placemats should measure about 12 1/2” x 18 1/4” each plus fringe. If you have used Gist Beam, these placemats are completely washable, and mine did not shrink after the first wash.
Wondering where you can get Beam? Here are some options:
and for my fellow Canadians, Tisse et File
