Today there was snow! And I finished my plarn placemats (which are up for sale on Etsy). These combined in an awesome winter photoshoot. Not that I'm a professional photographer by any stretch of the imagination, but I'm trying to use natural lighting and color theory. Thank you, Pink Lady Apples, for being both colorful and delicious.
Technical information:
Plain weave
Warp: Royal Blue Cotton Rug Warp
Weft: white plarn ("yarn" made from plastic bags)
Pics per inch: 10 ppi for the 1' blue warp stripes; 5 ppi for the middle
Size: 12.5" x 17 " (18" including fringe)
Number: 4 placemats
Each end has a half inch solid cotton header and footer.
Finished by knotting the ends to make the fringe.
Loom: Kromski Harp Rigid Heddle loom (30 " wide)
(In plain English, the skinny blue threads are the warp, or what goes on the loom first. The weft is the thicker white yarn and is added while weaving. PPI means how many warp threads there are per inch.)
Lessons learned:
- Leave more warp free for fringe than two inches. Two inches is really hard to knot.
- For plarn, 10 ppi would be good for emphasizing the warp but can look messy when the knots in the plarn disrupt the pattern. 5 ppi is perfect: flexible enough to shrug off the knots.
- I miss the beater on harness looms, but I had a wide toothed comb that I beat trouble spots with, and it worked out.
- Might make the header and footer only 1/4" next time. The cotton weft takes a lot longer to weave with than plarn.
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