One of the first things I designed were placemats. I've found them useful in protecting my furniture and in making the table look nicer. They also can be nice gifts, but the time commitment can be considerable. It takes me roughly two hours to make a single placemat. Therefore, it will take roughtly sixteen hours to make a set of eight.Also, before you devote the time to make them for someone, or even for yourself, it is important to determine if the color will go with the plates. I recommend taking a piece of china with you to the yarn store to select the color. You might be surprised at what looks good with your plates. For Christmas last year I made a set of these placemats for my mom. It wasn't a surprise on Christmas morning because I had sent her to the yarn store to pick out the color beforehand. She took a plate and told me she wanted Frosty Green. I then went to the yarn store and found the yarn. When I saw it, I did not like it, nor did I like the resulting placemats that I made from it. Then we used them with her china for Christmas dinner. The color was perfect for her china and made everything look nicer. The point is, take a plate with you when you pick your yarn. The placemats shown here are from sage green yarn, with a close up of the stitches in the bottom picture.
So, here's the pattern:
Use Red Heart Super Saver Yarn with a J hook.
Ch 45
Row 1: tc in 5th ch from hook. ltc across ch 5 turn
Row 2-10: ch 5, turn, tc, ltc across
Border: ch1, turn, sc, (sk 2, 5 dc, sk 2, sc) repeat around. sc should be in corners and in the ch 5 voids on the sides.
Border: ch1, turn, sc, (sk 2, 5 dc, sk 2, sc) repeat around. sc should be in corners and in the ch 5 voids on the sides.
ltc= linked triple crochet
For a tutorial on linked stitches, see my friend Nettie's blog at: http://loveinthestitches.blogspot.com/
