04 April, 2013

KNITTED PLACEMATS


This simple knitted project has a fun story. Sometime last year I found a bag of yarn in my stash box and wondered for a while about a pretty project I could turn it into. Since I was quite busy with all kind of other projects I wanted it to be simple yet practical. I've settled on knitted placemats (inspired by these ones from Debbie Bliss magazine)


The off-white and dark brown colours of yarn seemed perfect for a rustic feel of knitted placemats.  I've decided to make them in a simple seed stitch (described below) and casted on.
After several days of sporadic knitting I found a couple of other crafts  to keep me busy and my half-finished project slowly migrated from the craft basket in the living room to the office/craft space downstairs.


Weeks have passed until I remembered about my unfinished project.  I got enthusiastic about knitting and thought of different ways of incorporating knitted placemats in our decor.

Turned out that faith, or should I say Sebka (our cat), had a different plan for the placemats; I found him sleeping on my unfinished project on the floor in the craft room.  He managed to drag it out of the basket and though it to be a perfect sleeping mattress.  It also looked like it wasn't the first time he was using the placemat leaving me no choice but to finish this new cat mat project.

I still believe these would make nice placemats or decorative mats. No matter what purpose they would serve you, here are simple instructions:
  • Decide on the dimensions of you final placemat 
  • Cast on an even number of stitches
  • Seed stitch: 
          First row (k, p) repeat until the end           
Second row (p, k) repeat until the end
  • Repeat 2 rows until the placemat is of desired size. Cast off. 
_____
A year ago: SPRING TAG
Two years ago: BERNAT CABLE HAT

9 comments:

  1. Oh man, this made me smile. :) It is QUITE a lovely cat mat. :)

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    1. Thank you! I still have some yarn left maybe I'll end up making those beautiful placemats at some point.

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  2. Anya,
    I absolutely love your placemat / cat mat. The yarn and knitting are beautiful. I blog at homework and I've just launched a second site called DETAILS. DETAILS spotlights projects that have those details that make them extraordinary. I featured your mats yesterday! I'd love for you to stop by and take a look. http://carolynsdetails.blogspot.com/
    And visit my main site homework anytime: http://carolynshomework.blogspot.com/2013/04/the-inspiration-board-link-party-97.html
    Thank you so much for your beautiful creative inspiration.

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    1. Carolyn,

      Thank you for the sweet comment. I visited both of your sites and they are BEAUTIFUL.

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  3. :) I haven't knit for years but after following a page on facebook of a farm in Maine who spins and dyes their yarn from their own sheep I got the bug. I received the 5 (what was I thinking?!) skeins of wool yarn yesterday and as I was looking at the natural color one of my cats wanted to see too. He was SO EXCITED he rubbed all over it and apparently it's "kitty approved" for a cat bed. Found this on a google search and I'm thinking it's perfect for them! ;o) Thank you for the post it's a wonderful story and like one of the other readers said "made me smile". :o)

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  4. What size needles did you use? and a bulky yarn? And if you cast on an uneven number of stitches can't you just do k1 p1 every row?

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  5. Lovely yarn ! Would you mind sharing what it is (brand, color, etc.) ? Thanks in advance !

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    1. Salut Jacinthe!
      The yarn was given to me by my mother-in-law and had no labels on it. The closest (in terms of thickness) I could find online was Loops & Threads® Chunky™ Yarn. They have it on Michael's site http://canada.michaels.com/on/demandware.store/Sites-MichaelsCanada-Site/en_CA/Product-Show?pid=M10377546&cgid=Categories

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  6. Chunky cashmere yarns may be combined with silk fibers to create a more silkier feeling material. Kerinpuut

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