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.]

The butterfly on this piece — the Owl Butterfly Playmat by Sophie’s Stitches — caught my eye before I even knew what the project was. Now that I’ve give it a closer look I’m still not 100 percent sure what it is meant to be for, but I still love it.

I think it’s maybe to give you a flat surface to roll dice or play cards on, but there are no images of the project in use so I’m just speculating on that. If you know what it is, be sure to let me know!

What it physically is is a worsted weight mat (the sample is worked in cotton) that measures 14 by 24 inches, or 35.5 by 61 cm. The impression I get from the pattern notes and the photos is that you knit the rectangle plain and the butterfly is stitched on after using duplicate stitch, which is provided as a chart.

Of course you could choose to knit some of the colorwork as you go, either using stranded knitting or intarsia techniques, or maybe some of both. It just looks like a lot of duplicate stitch (and it is!) so knowing me if I were making this project I’d probably try to knit some of it instead of stitching it all.

The pattern also suggests that you can knit a second plain mat to sew on the back and cover up all the yarn ends, as well as making the mat thicker and a little more stable. There’s also a photo that shows fabric sewn to the back, which is also a good option if you have some fabric that has a bit of grip.

I like the graphic on this one enough I might just make it as a table pad for our entry way table. You can always make the mat part a different dimension, just make sure you’re centering the image if you do.

You can find this pattern on Ravelry.

[Photo: Sophie’s Stitches]

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