Gentle Rain

The Gentle Rain shawl will forever be Snowman’s Blush to me.  Ok, maybe I should start at the beginning. 

Once upon a time there was a shawl with no name that was going to be knit in pink yarn... 

One day TK and I were sitting on the train on our way home from somewhere, and I requested that she help me name my latest shawl design (‘cause she’s good like that).  

For those of you who’ve never been to New York, subway train cars have a lot of advertisements, not just on the walls, but along the ceiling and sometimes even on the outside of the cars.  They advertise everything from tv shows to beer to universities to bunion doctors.  The subway car that we were sitting in that day just happened to be advertising peanuts.  I know, crazy huh?  

Anyway, as we sat there and discussed the shawl, TK suddenly said to me, “You should name it snowman’s blush!” I responded with, “Huh?”   (FYI, my witty repartee makes me a hit at all the parties.)  She then pointed to one the peanut ads on the wall.  It was of a couple of guys running naked through the snow and the tag line read, “Gives you the energy to make a snowman blush.” And my brain said, “Eureka!” We’d been tossing around names like first blush, blush of spring, and such, but why not Snowman’s Blush? It’s weird and funny and I loved it.  But… cue ominous music…

It became Gentle Rain instead.  When I realized that I was going to submit it to KnitPicks, I decided I wanted to knit it in Alpaca Cloud.  But… seriously, where is that music coming from?... they didn’t have any pink Alpaca Cloud.  Plus Stacey, the IDP designer liaison at KnitPicks looked at me funny via email (hey! It’s possible.) when I told her the name.  So we decided on light blue (Waltz colorway) and a name change.  And that’s how a snowman’s blush became a gentle rain.  But we’ll always know it’s true identity.

I hope it doesn’t lose its CIA job over this,

Joyce

P.S. The second version in in Zephyr laceweight.

New York in the Summer

I admit it, I have mixed feelings towards New York City. Living here can be both wonderful and unpleasant on any given day. Hubbie and I moved here from Louisiana five years ago to pursue graduate degrees. We're still here because... well... we haven't finished them yet.
By far, my favorite place in the city is the Met. It's got a little something for everyone: paintings, architecture, fashion, sculpture, arms and armory, and, did I forget to mention, a whole section on fiber and weaving. The Museum of Natural History is also pretty good, especially the areas that highlight ancient textiles (and the Hall of Gems).
But my favorite part of living in New York doesn't take place in a building. It's the street fairs. Vendors set up booths and sell just about everything imaginable: food, clothing, housewares and decorations, etc. The street fair is a feast for all of the senses. However, once there you must also deal with one of the more um... interesting... aspects of life here. The shear mass of people.


This particular street fair was held in Times Square, so it was packed. But so much fun. Sampling food from multiple cultures, seeing clothing from all over the world, and the best part, looking at the fantastic knitted sweaters, stoles, and skirts being sold at various stalls (and in some cases thinking, "hey, I could do that.")