The giant threads, some knitted and some not, are produced industrially. The process of knitting these “threads” together requires a team of up to four people and PVC needles up to 13 feet long. Bauke Knottnerus describes his Phat Knits as “the closest you could get to having your very own ‘Honey, I Shrunk the Kids experience.'” I’d have to agree.

Phat Knits. Designed by Bauke Knottnerus.

Phat Knits is a series of brilliantly over scaled furniture pieces, despite the fact that the designer claims that he doesn’t really see himself as a furniture designer. “I’m more like a material designer,” he explains. “These things I make could end up as furniture or as textiles, it’s more like creating media that can be used to construct a coat or a carpet or a curtain.” Knit, woven, knotted or piled like spaghetti, the series includes seating, rugs, and multifunctional interior objects.  “I never really explained the Phat Knits project,” the Dutch designer admits. “People respond very intuitively to it.’

From funky furniture to fashion arrangements, objects and spaces, the Design Academy Eindhoven graduate is crossing boundaries, eliciting  humor and gaining recognition.  “It starts with a joke, but after that, it could be anything.”  He states that he has always been interested in scale, “using basic stylistic ideas but with new proportions,” so the ‘Honey, I Shrunk the Kids’ style design is not out of character.   

If you’re drawing blanks with the term “phat”, you’ve maybe heard it used as follows: “That sh*t is phat!” (Thank you UrbanDictionary.com), meaning “cool” or “pretty hot and tempting”.  Thus the title “Phat Knits” makes complete sense.  Unfortunately, according to Urban Dictionary, this term is somewhat passe – but in this context, we think it works.  Regarding the knitted or knotted pieces, Bauke’s name “Knott-nerus” is incredibly appropriate.

Assuming you are now fascinated by the concept of overscale knitting, check out Sebastian Schönheit, a design student at the Bauhaus Universty Weimar Germany, and his (also oversized) knitted carpet.