Swatched Aims to Share the Art of Knitting and Crochet

Have you ever watched the Netflix show “The Chef’s Table”? I find it really fascinating to learn about people who are really good at what they do and really passionate about what they do and who have creative careers and lives. I feel like that’s inspiring to me as a creative person.

Cereal Made is looking to produce a similar show focusing on fiber artists called “Swatched.” They’ve made a brief proof of concept video featuring knitter, weaver and creative spirit Angela Tong.

She talks about growing up near Boston a child of immigrants, going to art school and ultimately learning to knit, which opened the way to her creative career. She talks about the problems that have been coming to light in recent months having to do with diversity in the knitting and fiber arts communities, and her place on the recently formed Vogue Knitting Diversity Advisory Council, where she hopes to have a hand in making the knitting community more welcoming.

The video is well worth watching and the project sounds like a great one. They are currently looking for funding partners to make it an ongoing series that will “delve into the forces that drive these obsessive artists in their quest for creativity and perfection.” Sounds amazing to me.

[Photo: Swatched.]

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Sometimes I feel like knitters get intimidated to try new things because they think they need to start with a big project. Your first time working in the round doesn’t need to be a sock, and your first colorwork doesn’t need to be a sweater, for example. You can find little projects that use the skills you want to learn to build your confidence before you move on to something that requires more time commitment.

This adorable knit bunny, for example.

The colorwork bunny from Knit Picks was designed by Amy Munson and is a kind of bowling pin shaped bunny complete with a knit hat, contrasting inner ears and a little stranded colorwork on its body. Note that the ears are attached the the hat not the bunny, but you could stitch them to the bunny if you’d rather.

It’s worked from the bottom up and also has a tiny pompom tail you can’t see in the picture but it’s a really cute touch. There are a variety of little fair isle patterns to choose from to make the best bunny for you.

The bunny comes out about 8 inches tall (or just over 20 cm) and use several colors to complete the colorwork, depending on the design you choose.

You can purchase the pattern by itself from Knit Picks, or make a kit that includes sport weight yarn in all the colors you need for your creation. There are gray and brown options for the main body of the bunny, but of course if you’re using your own yarn you can make it whatever color you like.

Once you’ve tried colorwork (maybe also working in the round and shaping if those are skills you haven’t used before) in a little project like this you’ll be ready to take on something bigger in no time.

Check out the pattern on Knit Picks.

[Photo: Knit Picks]

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