Mom-made vintage game sweaters from the 80s

In the comments for this morning's post on the hand-made Super Mario sweater-vest, Scurra says, "I can match that. My mother knitted me two jumpers when I was about 12 with arcade games on the front and back. I would guess they were made in 1983/84. I don't appear to have any pictures of the 12-year old me wearing them though!"

Now, that's parental love!

Video game sweaters 1, Video game sweaters 2

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

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metafactory

I can’t resist posting this Cowichan-style toque done with PacMan, ghosts and bits. Anyone from the North West Coast will immediately recognize the iconic design (tea kettle warmer) and muted colours of the Cowichan knitting.

http://metafactory.tumblr.com/
D-Ru

Wow, those are impressive and would have been challenging to make! Your mommy does love you!
- Cunning
  
  I haven’t done much knitting, but it seems to me these patterns would have taken FOREVER to make. Wouldn’t you have to knot-off different colors dozens of times per row? Any knitters in the house? I think we might be looking at the Sistine Chapel of video game sweaters.
  - stringmonkey
    
    It’s hard to tell from the resolution, but my best guess is that the knitter employed a mix of techniques, including fair isle (leaving strands of the other color on the back, probably used for the Space Invaders), intarsia (which leaves a boatload of little ends, maybe for the figures on the lower sweater) and duplicate stitch (an embroidery stitch over a knit surface that mimics knitting in a contrasting color, which would have made the PacMan maze and the ladders a whole lot easier).
Pantograph

You forget that back in the 1980s mommies didn’t have Minesweeper and Facebook.
- IronEdithKidd
  
  No, they had soap operas, valium, alcohol and shopping malls. Why would today’s distractions preclude a mother from finding time to knit something completely awesome for her son?
  
  Minesweeper? Seriously? Do you live in 1995 every day or is today special?
  - Anonymous
    
    Having watched my mother & father in-law, I can attest to the continued interest minesweeper and free cell play in the lives of >40yr old parents.
Anonymous

I am so jealous I could cry.

All my mom made me was a Bicentennial costume with puffy sleeves, knickers, and a tri-corner hat.
Take It To The Chorus

Wow. Nice work. One you’d worked out a pattern on graph paper, I don’t think it would be too hard on a knitting machine. For an experienced machine knitter.