Swatches! Glorious swatches! Inspiration translated into a touchy-feely treat. Colors bursting to life, texture begging to be fondled, timeless treasures inviting you down memory lane.
It all started fifty years ago. An elderly friend, aware of my passion for the craft, offered me her mother’s crochet swatch book. Her mother had passed away nearly 40 years earlier and had made the book in her youth. To my best estimation that dates it to the early 1920s. The collection is impressive, but I am ever moved by how her efforts and skill have influenced my artistic life over the years, and through me, the lives of other crocheters.
Bound with thread and hemmed ever so neatly, the pages were fashioned from a golden cotton fabric. Inside hundreds of crochet samples are sewn to its sixty-two pages. Inspired by her example, my personal collection has impressively grown over the years. Although I have not placed my swatches into any semblance of order, I have a swatch drawer… okay, four drawers and three file cabinets. Like a miser in a room full of gold, ever so often I pour their contents out and revel in my treasure.
Together the collections document nearly a century of trends and educate crafters into the future. Swatching teaches us about color, texture, patterning, and gauge. Colors crash, blend, harmonize. Stitches pop, jump, breath. Yarn scratches, soothes, warms. Fibers stretch, shrink, drape. Fashion shocks, snubs, fades. Taste matures…let’s hope not. Swatches teach us to dream and create. Swatches teach us about ourselves. Ah yes…the glory of swatches.
