A Very Pink Placemat

During our December holidays, I met one of my Ons Hekel-friends for the first time.  We had a lovely afternoon, chatting about wool and colours and things, having great coffee and cheesecake which she served on these placemats:

Tydens die Desember-vakansie ontmoet ek een my die Ons-Hekel-vriendinne.  Oor die lekkerste koffie in George en 'n bord kaaskoek, kuier ons die middag verby oor wolle, kleure en hekeldinge.  Ek was mal oor hierdie klein, vierkantige plekmatjies wat sy gebruik het:

Kiets Cat's cotton placemats

It's just big enough for a small plate, and I loved it.  I liked the square, simple, open design, and the fact that it isn't a huge rectangular placemat.

So I posted about it on  Ons Hekel, with a photo, and set about looking for an open square pattern to use.

Dis net groot genoeg, met 'n eenvoudige, oop ontwerp, en ek wou ook sulkes hê.
Ek vertel toe daarvan op Ons Hekel, en beginnie soek na 'n patroon...

Testing some patterns with MIL's wool and the help of a local port. 

Meanwhile, back in Pretoria, another Ons Hekel-friend already started to figure out the pattern from the photo I posted, and started her own!

Intussen begin vriendin Adele in Pretoria sommer dadelik met haar weergawe van die patroon!

Adele's pretty green placemat

In the end, I decided on the Freesia Square from this photo I found on Pinterest. After hooking all four squares and trying various joins, I resorted to frogging two round of all to do a Join-as-you-go, and then added the first three round of Border 12 from Around the corner - Crochet Borders (Edie Eckman).

Ek het uiteindelik die Freesia-patroon gebruik n.a.v. 'n foto wat ek gesien het op Pinterest (en so paar aanpassings gemaak).  Die randpatroon was nr 12 uit die boek "Around the Corner - Crochet Borders" van Edie Eckman.

Blocking away

(Using my husband's swim board for pinning...)

I worked with Vinnis Nikkim, a locally produced cotton yarn that I absolutely love.  The plan was to make four of these for Hartenbos Huisie ...but then I had only one ball and don't want to buy more - there's a major de-stash project going here :-)  So I'll stick to the one for now and maybe hook four matching smaller squares in whatever suitable colour I find during Project De-stash...

Ek het Vinnis Nikkim gebruik, en het toe op die ou end te min om vier plekmatjies te maak...ek wil nie nou nog koop nie omdat daar eers orde moet kom in die nimmereindigende wolversameling! Dalk maak ek vier kleintjies vir my tee-beker, as ek vroegoggend op die stoep sit en beskuit eet. 

Now to find a piece of great cake...

Ed.
I couldn't leave the plate like this; had to get a pistachio muffin from The Lucky Bread Co...

That's better.