Where's Waldo?

Even after a whole month of having to endure Christmas carols with a shrill Rudolph singing, seeing baubles everywhere and thinking 'bah humbug' and delaying my own personal Christmas ritual of putting up the tree till Christmas Eve, the spirit oh the holiday seems to have effected me a whole week after the climax of the season. I have this strange love for things red and white such as the Julie West Fed 5B camera issued by Red Army Camera as well as this knitted scarf from the creative mind of Yokoo Gibraan. I saw this from a Facebook link just an hour ago despite it being listed for ten days now and I do love the name, bright red and white and cute links of the scarf. It's been named as the Peppermint link scarf, how cute.

 

It just reminds me of my love for "Where's Waldo" books, horizontal red and white strips as well as knitted hats and ugly sweaters. Even teamed up with a simple dress in a plain black it would look very charming and cute, the only thing that surprised me about the scarf is the very bright red and white yarn used in its design.

 

I think the scarf looks best when it's long and dangling rather than tight and doubled up around the neck, it just looks a bit much when clustered together in a knitted heap rather than letting the links come full circle. I admire Yokoo for starting not one, but two online Etsy stores as well as combining the best of making paper chains with knitting- something which she has transformed into an artform. With the money I'm saving in my piggy bank for future buys I hope to get a scarf from her sometime soon since I had had my eye on them for a while. Perhaps when the height of Summer passes and I can let my hair down again.

Yokoo and her Etsy Store

Whoever said knitting wasn't cool clearly has been living under a rock for quite some time. Yokoo and her knitted creations have been around since 2007 on her etsy store and have attracted attention from Tavi Gevinson from The Style Rookie in her earlier years, long before her new website Rookie was launched as well as Brooke Kao. She's managed to harness her energies to create knitted snoods, beanies, link chain scarfs, bows and bow ties and bags. She's even branched off to make a few jumpers as well as large beaded necklaces. She really seems like a strong woman that you can look up to and aspire to be. 

I'm a jack-of-all-trades myself; not really good at anything in particular with focus all over the place and there's no one single hobby that I have managed to love and enjoy my whole life. Things that I have done for a long portion of my life often tend to become things that I end up hate doing.

There's a wonderful range of knitted colours you can choose from when ordering your piece, each one crafted with love and care by Yokoo Gibraan herself. She has a really strong sense of self and style which I admire. Her haircut is something else; there's individualism and a sense of doing something because you want to.

 I think what I'm getting at about her haircut is the fact she's not conforming and she's still beautiful and feminine while rocking a bowl-cut and she doesn't need to please anyone around her. I admire being able to do that.

Her flickr used to promote and post her promotion of her knitted pieces as well as her own unique style and her photography. I assume the works she posts to be her own and if they are- then that's all the more impressive because she is able to use her camera and space to emphasise her pieces and their intricacies when in a simplistic space and also evoke atmosphere and mood.

There's a sense of mystery in her personal style reflected in some of those weird and wonderful knitted creations. Especially the snoods, I could really bury my head in their and become an owl on a train from Melbourne wearing a good and cuddly snood. Snoods are great because people leave you alone when you wear them.

She also collects vintage swatch watches, which I think is really cool. I may have acquired too many watches to wear at once myself due to her influence on my younger self a year or two ago.

These pieces shown are just some of my favourites, and some have been a favourite for some years.

Preppy, vintage and one of a kind Yokoo's style and pieces are unforgettable. She is able to be found on etsy, flickr, twitter, facebook and tumblr if you can't get enough and there's a wealth of images of her pieces scattered all around the net. I just hope this was a good showcase of her talents in manipulating yarn to create amazing pieces.