Sweater Snowflakes

Another oft-seen variety of the snowflake mutation can be found on knitted sweaters. For example:



Hats can sport a snazzy eight-sided snowflake too!


As you can see, they're everywhere!

It all started back when...

Eight-sided snowflakes are not a recent phenomenon. Here's an early image from the 1970's from a public radio brochure for their school closing announcements called "Operation Snowflake":

Introduction to Snowflake Mistake

Every Christmas season, the commercials on TV and the internet lighten the mood by adding in snow, but sooner or later, there's something that doesn't look quite right. For example, the ad below from Chase:



Looks normal, but the snowflakes are odd, almost deformed. No, it can't be, they have 8 sides! Snowflakes have 6 sides, and that's it. Science says so. Drawing them with 8 sides (or 5, or 4) is the equivalent of drawing a 3-headed reindeer, or square eggs, or triangular-shaped raindrops by mistake, and it's time someone did something about it.

This is not an isolated incident. It happens more often that you'd care to believe. As I find these mutant snowflakes, I'll be updating them here. If you spot some in your neighborhood, send me an image and I'll try to get it on the blog. Be vigilant.