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By Uknitted Kingdom Captain America, Obelix, & the Helmholtz Illusion During a slump in my knitting mojo (I was knitting a Ranunculus as a gift and all I wanted to do was ANYthing except knit it) I decided to crochet a sweater for myself. Using some left over blue and white Drops Karisma DK yarns and a 6mm hook, I quickly made the top of a granny stitch Raglan sweater, including the arms, down to the lower chest. I then realized that this resembled a sweater I had been “mind-knitting” and imagining for a number of years. I decided to test out the pattern in crochet first just to see if the idea worked. The sweater is based upon the Marvel character, Captain America. A blue textured top-down raglan to start with white sleeves from just above the elbow to the wrist, an applique white star sewn on at the end, and thick red and white vertical stripes around the midriff and waist. I had planned to add a red cuff to the sleeves to hint at the red Captain America gloves. I chose to crochet the red and white striped midriff section horizontally, seam together, and then join to the top section. The crochet join wasn’t particularly neat, so the plan is/was to rejoin it using a sewn method for neatness. As long-term readers and watchers of Blocked Magazine will know, I’m a rather rotund gentleman (don’t you just love polite ways of saying “fat?”) and always believed the old adage that horizontal stripes made the wearer appear wider and shorter, and vertical stripes made the wearer appear slimmer and taller. I was confident Captain America’s vertical stripes would make me look like Chris Evans’ stunt double! You’ll be as surprised as I to learn this was not the case. It turns out the vertical stripes made me look more reminiscent of Obelix from the Asterix comic series. https://asterix.com/en/portfolio/obelix/ So, what went wrong? The origin behind this long-standing misconception is not known. I couldn’t find any sources stating why horizontal stripes shouldn’t be worn by fat people. Only that they shouldn’t. When I learned of “The Helmholtz Illusion,” I thought I had uncovered the origin of this fashion advice. However, The Helmholtz Illusion has always suggested the opposite. The Helmholtz Illusion is usually portrayed by two squares, one with horizontal stripes and the other vertical stripes. Despite both squares being the same size, the eye is tricked into perceiving the horizontally striped square as being taller. 36 https://www.amazon.co.uk/Captain-America-Comics-1941-1950-1-ebook/dp/B00ZQ6MU4C https://www.dmarge.com/chris-evans-phone
Captain America Continued... This illusion is attributed to the 19th Century German physicist and physician, Herman von Helmholtz (1821 – 1894). Helmholtz gave out fashion tips to 19th Century women affirming that horizontal stripes made women look taller. How this fashion tip became reversed in the 20th Century is a mystery. In 2008, Dr. Peter Thompson, a psychologist and expert in visual perception at the University of York, tested the optical illusion. He concluded, “Horizontal stripes don’t make you look fatter.” Although he only tested a sample of 20 people, he discovered that his subjects, when looking at photographs of two women of equal size, tended to say the one wearing horizontal stripes, rather than vertical, were slimmer. Pause for a moment before you rush out to buy horizontal striped t-shirts or begin knitting those horizontal striped mini-skein stash-busting patterns. In 20<strong>12</strong>, to confuse matters more, information contradicting the earlier findings was published. Val Waltham, an amateur scientist, conducted her own research and concluded that horizontal stripes do make a person appear fatter. Her research won her the BBC’s Amateur Scientist of the Year Award. The judges commented, “A lovely idea which was well executed, had clear results, and leads on to further research. You can’t ask more from a science experiment.” The crux of Waltham’s theory is that Helmholtz and Thompson used 2D images in their research rather than 3D images. When 3D images (or real-life models) were used, the viewers in Waltham’s research tended to think horizontal stripes made the model look fatter. Sadly, we’re no nearer to a definitive answer as to which stripes make a person look fatter or slimmer. There are too many variables which seemingly have not been considered, amongst them: • The placement of the black vs white stripes. • Could the width of the stripes skew the results? Pinstripes vs thick stripes? • What happens if the stripes aren’t all uniform in width? • Does having the white vertical stripes on the outside of the silhouette look different to having the black stripes on the outside? • What if the colors are changed? • What if the garment has positive ease and drapes rather than negative ease and fitted? To my eye, horizontal stripes seem to appear straighter as they go around a body than vertical stripes which seem to accentuate the body’s shape and curve in and around it. If you look at the image of Obelix, although a drawing, you can see those stripes are not straight lines. But is research into this even needed? And which research should you believe? The small sample of 20, or the slightly condescending “lovely idea?” Well, frankly, none of them. Wear the designs you want to wear. If you follow Waltham’s research, you will look slimmer in real life but fatter in photos, and Thompson’s research suggests the opposite. I’m afraid, one way or another, your fat is going to make you look fat. If in doubt, wear black. As for my Captain America sweater. I have decided to split the red and white vertical striped midriff section from the original top. I’m going to turn the two elements into two different sweaters. I’ll continue to crochet the bottom of the blue and white sweater in the same blue and white pattern throughout. Meanwhile, I’ll wear the red and white striped midriff as a cowl, for now. Eventually, I’ll attach a new Captain America bottom-up upper chest to it, using just blue and incorporating the 5-pointed white star. Captain America might not be a fat character, but he isn’t a British character either, so I shall wear it anyway, because who is going to stop me? The Red Skull? Hydra? The “Knutters?” Do your worst vile villains! https://www.theguardian.com/science/2008/sep/<strong>12</strong>/slimming.stripes#:~:text=Scientists%20have%20discovered%20that%20the,a%20less%20than%20perfect%20physique. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/9336938/Horizontal-stripes-really-do-make-you-look-fat.html 37
Page 1 and 2: ISSUE 12
Page 3 and 4: Dear Readers, And so, another year
Page 5 and 6: Monogamous... Continued... large st
Page 7 and 8: y M. Dreary A KNITTERS PLAYLIST Her
Page 9 and 10: Dishident Continued... → Row 20:
Page 11 and 12: Join Two Sisters and Some Yarn in o
Page 13 and 14: y Deplorable Knitter YEA OR NAY...
Page 15 and 16: Selbu Contest Continued... Submissi
Page 25 and 26: Book Reviews... Continued... Knitti
Page 27 and 28: Book Reviews... Continued... At the
Page 29 and 30: Amigurumi/Crochet Patterns http://w
Page 31 and 32: DIRECTIONS: Ch 30. INCREASING SECTI
Page 33 and 34: 33
Page 35: Bloggers & Vloggers 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Page 39 and 40: DIRECTIONS: In Color A, CO 115 sts
Page 41 and 42: By Uknitted Kingdom Willful Ignoran
Page 43: Acknowledgments BLOCKED has been ma

BLOCKED_12

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