Ragtime Remix Placemats

Completed: 2015
Dimensions: four placemats, each 12.5" x 17" with 1.5" fringe at each end

I made these placemats using the Ragtime Remix pattern by Carol Reinhold. They are supposed to be woven on a four-shaft loom, so I warped my rigid heddle loom with three heddles so I could do the four-shaft pattern.

Placemat fabric, close-up

This pattern is great because the weft can be any combination of scrap fabric you happen to have lying around the house. I had an old red batik tablecloth that had a big bleach stain in the middle of it so I could no longer use it as a tablecloth, but the fabric was nice, so I used that as the main color for all four placemats. I used scraps from three other smaller pieces of fabric for contrasting color. I put the red in the same places in all four placemats, but changed up where I put the three contrasting fabrics.

The warp is 8/4 carpet warp from Maysville. I used two colors, red-brown and linen, and warped them randomly.

Fabric strips rolled into balls

Reinhold shows a neat technique for cutting the fabric into one long strip: you fold the fabric in half, and sew it together at the edge, and then cut the fabric with staggered diagonal cuts to make one big cylindrical loop. The technique is described with good explanatory pictures in the pattern.

The fabric scraps are supposed to be cut into strips 1.25" wide, but I found that my batik cloth was thick enough that it actually was the same size scrunched up as the other fabric scraps when it was 1" wide, so I made it  into 1" strips and the other colors into 1.25" strips.


This is the pattern I used for the colors:

6 picks with the red-brown warp
8 picks color A
2 picks color B
2 picks color A

The four placemats, just off the loom, with 3" spaces between

2 picks color C
5 picks color A
3 picks color D
6 picks color B
3 picks color D

5 picks color A
2 picks color C
2 picks color A
2 picks color B
8 picks color A
6 picks with the red-brown warp

Total: 50 picks of fabric scrap per placemat, plus 12 picks of the carpet warp

And this is the color sequence I used for each of the four placemats. Color A is always red.

Placemat 1

The finished placemats in action

Color B = blue plaid
Color C = yellow/green
Color D = dark blue

Placemat 2
Color B = yellow/green
Color C = dark blue
Color D = blue plaid

Placemat 3
Color B = dark blue
Color C = blue plaid
Color D = yellow/green

Placemat 4
Color B = blue plaid
Color C = dark blue
Color D = yellow/green

Malabrigo Purple-Green Variegated Tweed Scarf

Completed: January 2015
Dimensions: 8" wide by 65" long (with 4" fringe on each end)

The completed scarf,
all right-side up

Continuing the rigid-heddle-tweed scarf cavalcade, I made this scarf following the model of the navy variegated tweed scarf I made in late 2014.

I bought the yarn in a very nice yarn shop in Montpelier, VT called The Knitting Studio (which truly might be "Vermont's friendliest yarn shop.") The warp is one skein of Malabrigo worsted in color #239 (Saphire [sic] Magenta) and the weft is Cascade 220 worsted wool in color #2403 (Chocolate).

The Malabrigo is 100% merino wool and a relatively bulky gauge for weaving, so it turned out to be a little bit stiff and heavy for a scarf, but the colors are really beautiful. Again, my pictures don't do it justice; the green and magenta highlights in the warp look like jewels in the sunlight.

Wrong side on left,
right side on right

I also like the contrast between the weave design
and the color: the tweed is almost a mechanical, digital pattern, but the variegation in the yarn is organic and flowing.

Tweed Detail