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.]

It’s a common complaint among women and femme dressing folk that our clothes do not include enough (and enough useful) pockets. And even if your clothes do have good pockets, there’s always a chance that you’d rather have another pocket to put some essentials in rather than having to carry a whole bag.

But because we are knitters, we can take this problem into our own needles and knit ourselves some auxiliary pockets.

Beatrice Mase did just that, with a kind of fancy toolbelt pocket accessory that they call VELVET Pockets.

The stitch pattern has a plush, sort of velvet effect, thus the name, but it’s worked with regular fingering/sock weight yarn. (The sample uses wool, but you could experiment with other fibers, too.) It calls for 776 yards of 710 meters, which you might just have in your sock yarn stash.

The pattern includes several pockets of different sizes, with the main body of the pocket worked flat in one piece and the exterior pockets sewn on at the end. You also have the option of adding screw rivets and a coordinating clasp that make it look even more toolbelt chic.

The design is worked with a loop of knit fabric at the top so it can slide onto a belt. The pattern includes explanatory diagrams, photo and video tutorials and is adjustable to fit different sizes of belts.

It’s almost enough to make me want to start wearing belts again, even though I haven’t for years. Because who wouldn’t want a few extra little pockets to hold things when you don’t have enough to really justify carrying a bag around?

The pattern is available in English and French on Ravelry and you can also buy a kit complete with the yarn, rivets and clasp (the pattern is not included in the kit) direct on Etsy.

[Photo: Beatrice Mase]

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