Interestingly enough, there have been hoods used by photographers to develop film in the field since pretty much forever. Here is an example I found at the excellent Popular Mechanics blog, and it dates from 1924.

But that product wasn’t made of yarn, of course.

James

Seriously, Shannon’s remark about “perfect geekware” is dead on. I can easily imagine amateur astronomers donning something like this in the field to keep the light from their laptops, etc, from messing up anyone else’s night vision. Though the amateur astronomical version would probably be black nylon rather than knit out of orange and tan wool.

when I was just beginning to learn knitting,I had creations like this manufactured by a dozen: somehting that started as one thing, transformed into another, and got renamed to save grace – but wasn’t fooling anyone.

It also advertises to everyone that the wearer is unaware of his surroundings and a geek who probably wants everyone to know that he is a geek. Better to sit with your back to the wall or use one of those privacy screens that reduces the viewing angle of your LCD. For blocking external stimuli, ear plugs are more effective and don’t attract attention.

It seems like perfect geekwear, it accomplishes a functional purpose but looks absolutely stupid.

I’ve told you before, just because people won’t make eye contact doesn’t mean that you are invisible!

James