Really cool!

Hi lovely people!

The Summer & Winter Colour & Weave episode dropped the day I was pondering what to make my mum for her birthday, so d'uh... placemats it is! I finished them just in the nick of time as I'm flying home to surprise her with them in a few short hours. I decided to make a set inspired by a patchwork runner I made her a couple of years ago:

Apart from the colours, I knew I wanted triangles of some kind to tie the placemats together with the patchwork, so I used Jane's Block Analysis technique to draft a simple triangle:

Graphic, graphic, graphic... what to do??? I knew I wanted something to do with checks, because checks are classic and the colour scheme is kind of contemporary, so it seemed like a good fit of old and new.

I don't know about you, lovely people, but I have watched Season 2 Colour & Design a bazillion times. That may be a slight exaggeration, but I've watched it a lot and always get something new out of it.

Hmmm... what can I do with checks, I wonder... Why not use this? Jane to the rescue! :)

It's perfect! I can stick large checks (blocks of DDLL) into the large quadrant, my block analysis triangles into the small corner, and let the rest work its magic.

This is the resulting profile. Warp colours are ivory on the right side, cream and golden brown stripes on the left side (stripes of 7 ends and 9 ends so the cut lines would be nice and crispy clean!). Zingers/framers are dark red. I mixed ivory in the warp and cream in the weft to get one of those cool in-between colours like we did in the muted colour gamp way back when.

Sett is 70/10 - approx. 17.5 EPI (I tried the sett Jane recommended but couldn't get my triangles anything close to square - even now they're a little elongated - so I cut off and resleyed). Sleyed 1/dent in 70/10 reed. 8/2 cotton warp (Brassard and Venne colours used throughout). 8/2 cotton used throughout weft, in single and double picks.

I decided to play around with each pair of placemats and make them Same Same but not:

The first used dark brown weft in triangle section and chunky blocks of DDLL in golden brown and cream for the checks. The second used black weft for the triangles, then narrow stripes of DDLL.

I played around with my twill treadling in this one to change the shape of the triangles. Dark brown weft in first one with chunky stripes of DLDDL. Black weft in second with narrow stripes of DLDDL.

This time I decided to try something different and square the big square (top left) with chunky blocks of checks. The right side is DDL. I reversed it for the next one and did DDDDLLLL on the left and chunky blocks of DDL on the right. Same same. Totally different look.

For the last group I wanted to go back to where I started with chunky blocks of checks. For the left I created a repetitive sequences of blocks (I was using up bobbin bits). The lucky last placemat is same same with the repetitive sequence (but narrower) and narrow stripes for the checks.

Hems all woven: 1/2" PW + 1.5" ground

I think that's everything!

Thanks for looking! :)

Are you sure you’re not a member of Jane’s Dream Team? You should be!
Those are stunning, and beautiful presentation, too. I bet you’ve been at this for awhile!

Thanks so much, Deb! :) I've been weaving for over 15 years now and still there aren't enough hours in the day for all of my crazy ideas.

David, these mats are AMAZING !!

Thanks so much, Cheryl!

I finished Episode 7 yesterday and got my mats ready for hemming. Thought I'd share my observations. I put on a 5 yard warp and got 5 mats...barely...my back rod was almost to the back of my shafts.

After cutting off the loom, I thought my mats were way too long. From cut edge to cut edge the most common length was 27 inches. After a trip through the washer and then the dryer set on medium high...wow did these babies shrink!! Again, cut edge to cut edge was now down to 22-23 inches. After hemming, they'll be perfect. There was zero wrinkles to worry about after taking out of the dryer. No curling edges etc...wonderful.

I wove the first 3 mats in order so as to see the difference in the treadling patterns up close and personal. Hands down I preferred the "Pairs Style" treadling. It is just so much more detailed with the background patterns. I will attach a close up photo.

Of the 5 mats I wove, my favorite for viewing from a distance was #9. The one with the DDLDL stripe sequence. The next time I weave this combination of Summer and Winter with Color & Weave, it will be using the "Pairs Style" treadling with DDLDL sequencing.

This was a very enjoyable Episode to watch and to weave!!

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It sounds like you had fun and learned a lot through this episode, Cheryl! It will be interesting to see what you create using inspiration from this episode 😁

Good work Cheryl!

They’re beautiful, Cheryl! The texture in these mats is magical.

Thanks David...yes, the texture is amazing. And especially considering the floats are short and NO curling on the edges like some other textured weaves.

David, thanks for this inside in your planning process. Your mum will be so happy with this beautiful gift!

Cheryl, your mats look great! I haven't done S and W yet but will try it for sure.

Opinions please

I am going to weave episode 8 with the 28 epi version. My reed choices are 12-dent threaded 2,2,3 or a 9-dent threaded 4,3,3,3,3,3,3,3,3.

Which would you choose?

thanks

Thanks so much, Catherine! :)

Cheryl, I’d probably go for 2,2,3. Only because I’m pretty sure my brain would lose track of all the 3’s in the other option.