What does your cat actually see?
Even though our June knit-along is just starting, we’re already planning for August! For our next KAL project we are sticking with the cats and dogs theme, but in a totally different way. It's not about what our pets look like, but what the world looks like to them.
Here's the short version of the science: humans typically have three types of colour receptors in our eyes, which is why we can see the full rainbow of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. (Though of course not everyone's vision is the same, so even the human experience of a rainbow is wonderfully diverse.)
Dogs have two types of colour receptors instead of three. Their world is mostly yellows and blues, with no reds or oranges at all. Cats also have two types, but tuned to slightly different frequencies, so they see more in the blue-green and purple range.
If you and your pets look at a rainbow, you’re seeing the same thing but different.
Andrea Rangel and I have been working on a summer knitting project built around this idea. Our August project will be a crescent shawlette — because of course it should be the shape of a rainbow — with three colourways inspired by the visible spectrum of humans, cats, and dogs.
Kits drop next Wednesday at 9 am PT. I'll have all the details in your inbox that morning, including full photos of the shawlettes.