Mosaic Placemats/Coasters by Elizabeth Cala

Mosaic Placemats/Coasters

Knitting
January 2016
Worsted (9 wpi) ?
18 stitches and 34 rows = 4 inches
in garter stitch - knit every row
US 5 - 3.75 mm
960 - 1000 yards (878 - 914 m)
12"x 15" placemat, 4"x 4" coaster
English
This pattern is available as a free Ravelry download

These placemats were designed with matching coasters for a family member for Christmas. I’ve done very little mosaic knitting before, and thought I would try my hand at pattern-writing as well. Aside for the needle size I thought worked best, they were very easy and came out beautifully!

If you don’t know mosaic knitting, it’s really not too challenging. I have a written description in the pattern, but you could also look online for a tutorial to help you. All you need to be able to do is slip stitches, knit, and count to be successful.

The size is approximate, but should be large enough for a standard placemat setting. The needle size is smaller than recommended to give the fabric more stiffness for daily use.

I noticed the gauge I took in my garter stitch swatch and the mosaic knitting differed by about 1/2”, the pattern is written as if the entire placemat were done in mosaic knitting and accounts for the difference of 1/2” from the garter stitch swatch. If you choose to do only borders (as I did when running short of time), be sure to decrease by about 4 stitches to account for the difference in gauge between the two techniques.

This pattern can be used as more of a guideline. The materials needed will be one skein of each color per placemat/coaster, if you do the whole mosaic pattern the entire time. By doing borders only, you will need more of one color than another. For example, I used one skein of each color on the zig-zag placemat, but needed two blue on my chevron version.