Sunday, December 25, 2011

Second Weaving Project: Placemats

Today I began my second weaving adventure. For this project I hope to accomplish 3 goals. One: correctly calculate the amount of yarn needed (both warp and weft). Two: weave multiple items on the same warp. Three: have those finished items be the desired dimensions (or at least close to it). I chose to weave place mats for this project. They are a simple plain weave hounds tooth pattern. I started with 4 skeins of an inexpensive cotton/acrylic blend yarn, Red Heart Eco-Cotton Blend, which I got on sale at Fred Meyer. 2 skeins in Green and 2 in white. My warp is 99" long and 126 ends (64 green, 62 white). I am using an 8 dent reed. I am shooting for a finished size of 14" x 12" per mat, with 1" hems at both ends.

After sleying the reed and threading the
heddles in a 1-2-3-4 sequence for tabby.

Getting ready to beam the warp.

Now to tie onto the front apron rod.

And away we go.

I managed to finish weaving one mat, today.

That red yarn is waste yarn which will be removed to make the hem easier to turn under. I'd better get one of my sewing machines ready. I'll need it for zigzagging the ends of the mats before I cut them apart.

2 comments:

m2m said...

What a beautiful project! I love the colors and the distribution of all the embellishments. Thanks for sharing :)
machine to machine

crazihippichic said...

Thank you, m2m. We'll see if it turns out as planned. Good thing the plates won't care if the mats aren't perfect. :-)