Placemats

The recent first issue of Debbie Bliss' knitting magazine had in it a handful of really cute patterns using her new superchunky yarn Como, made of wool and cashmere. Unfortunately, I can't afford that. I picked up some bulky wool from Elann and cut the cost of making these adorable placemats to roughly a third of what it would have cost. (Pats self on back.)

They are totally great, squishy and fat and lovely, even just in pure wool. A slightly thicker yarn would probably have done a bit better job, but who's complaining. These things only take about a half hour apiece, so in no time flat, I have a lovely table setting for the holidays. My only concern is that they are slightly smaller than I would like. They measure about 23cm x 28cm (which are the dimensions given by the written pattern) but I would really prefer them to have another couple of cm in both directions. I tried to block them bigger, but they bounced back to their original dimensions. They are clearly as stubborn as I am. I gave in... this time.


They are a big change from what I've been working on, recently (and with no pun intended.) Here is an image of the needles I've been using. The bottom one is the needles for the socks I just made (US2); the center ones are from the grey Drops hat (US6); of course the top are for the placemats (US17) and were bought especially for them. I am not convinced I'll ever need them again. Unless I decide I want more cute placemats.