Take a look! A Zoetrope!

This post is an homage to other knitting bloggers, who create a rich and diverse knitting community on the internet.  They allow knitters from small towns to connect with city knitters, international knitters to see what the locals are up to, and for those with truly unusual points of view to share their ideas with mainstream knitters. 

This blog, the Mrs. Cleaver Chronicles, http://mscleaver.com/2011/09/05/introducing-zoetrope/, is one of those unique viewpoints. 

What's a Zoetrope or Zoopraxiscope, the thing this hat celebrates?  It's the photography cousin of a cartoon flip book.  It's a device that shows a series of photos projected through a rotating glass disc to imitate motion.  The viewer looked at the image through a small slit to focus the eye on a specific visual range.  It was a direct forerunner of the movies we see today.  The first images made for a zoopraxiscope were those of a running horse.

The pattern is available on the blog page and on Ravelry.  LOVE IT!  I'm always impressed at the things that inspire knitters to create.  I would never have made this connection, but I'm thrilled that Mrs. Cleaver did.  My inner nerd rejoices!

Fun Freebies

Do we all know about this?  http://www.dailyknitter.com/day.php  This site provides a new, free knitting pattern every day.  You may find terrific inspiration here.  Look 'em up!

If you like their page on Facebook, the free pattern pic will appear on your page every day! 

Inspiration

I went out to a diner for breakfast the other day.  It was close to a SUNY Buffalo campus well known for its high percentage of foreign students.  I liked people watching, and the international and multicultural scene playing out over coffee and eggs. 

I noticed was that most couples and groups were of mixed nationalities, and each kid was dressed in a unique way. There were sweats of various vintages and styles, and occassionally absurd numbers of layers, but mostly real individuality.  Why don't adults dress this way?

One Asian girl had a sweater that looked handmade, and it was a long-sleeved crew-necked sweater with built-in mittens!  The sleeves had sock style ends, with a hole for your hand to poke out for practical things, and poke back in for the cold.  The colorwork was at unlikely angles in random sizes.  Cute as heck.

A guy with a Slavic accent had one of the widest knitted scarves I've ever seen on a man, in a mix of very deep and vivid greens.  It was very long, and wrapped several times, and worn over a gorgeous grey sweater with deeply carved cables.  It was probably the warmest looking combo I saw.

Maybe the most fun were the knitted hats.  There were Andean caps with earflaps and tassels, slouchy tams, watch caps, stocking caps and newsboys.  There were stripes, solids, cables, lace, pom poms, tassels, and appliques.  There were skull and crossbones, flowers, and nordic designs.  The colors were fabulous.  More was more, and the effect was cool and unique. 

It would have made a great magazine shoot for a knitting mag.  (Where are the camera crews when you need them?)  It was great inspiration to design.  The possibilities are endless!  Leave it to the kids to teach an old dog new looks.