Neighborhood Scarf Reveal -- In Honor of Mr. Rogers

Last week I teased you with some unusual photos from my latest creation. And then I began a story that I'm going to finish telling you today. So before you read any more, pop over and read the start of my story here at the bottom of that post. 

Now that you're back, let me continue the story...

As we were approaching his home on the ride home from the airport, just before the crest of the hill, I turned to my left and saw, right there, Mr. Fred Rogers--the real-life Mr. Rogers--mowing his lawn--in HIS neighborhood! I was actually in Mr. Roger's neighborhood! He had invited me into his neighborhood and home via my television for all of my childhood, but this was the real deal. My dad's friend spoke very highly of him and confirmed that he was, indeed, a very good neighbor. I was not surprised.

So now it's time to explain why my most recent design is affectionately called the Neighborhood Scarf. But since I teased you with photos last week, let me show it to you and explain...

This scarf may seem a bit random and scrappy, but the story behind it is meaningful to me. It all started when I happened upon this image. It's a graphic of the colors of Mr. Rogers' sweaters from 1979-2001 on every episode of Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood. Instantly I saw a blanket, of course. (And there will most likely be a Neighborhood Blanket in my future.) But when I dug a little deeper into the actual story behind the sweaters, I quickly realized that I needed to make a scarf to boldly wear around my neck as a symbol of the love celebrated by Mr. Rogers in the wearing of his mother's hand-knitted sweaters on the show.  (This video is where he shares his tender thoughts about these special sweaters.)

As he declared, "She makes sweaters for many different people. But that's one of the ways that she has of saying that she loves somebody. You know, when I put on one of these sweaters, it helps me to think about my mother. I guess that's the best thing about things. They remind you of people. "

One of her hand-knitted sweaters that Mr. Rogers wore is now housed in the Smithsonian Institute as shown here. 

Mr. Rogers was a television icon in America. Every child who grew up watching Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood could hum his simple tunes and hear his gentle voice in their heads, and most of us felt as if he actually was their neighbor and friend. He was a good man from all accounts. He was a gentle man with a gentle heart, gentle words, and a gentle view on people. I've got this book of some of his most profound and wise words winging its way from Amazon to my house right now*. There's also a list of some of his wise and kind quotes here.

As part of my crochet design I included a simple surface crochet silhouette of a row of houses. It seemed fitting for the "neighborhood" theme. I also knew that with 305 rows, I would need a fingering weight yarn in order to keep the scarf at a reasonable length. I also recognized that I wasn't about to weave in 610 ends, so quickly came up with a strategy for fringe for which I'm pretty chuffed. I'll share the full tutorial for the scarf next week. In the meantime, you can read a bit more about the delightful Mr. Fred Rogers on one of his fan pages here.

If you haven't heard, there's a movie, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, being made with Tom Hanks as Mr. Rogers that will be released in November. You can see the trailer here. I'll most certainly be there on opening night with my Neighborhood Scarf around my neck. 

| On the Board | -- "As human beings, our job in life is to help people realize how rare and valuable each one of us really is, that each of us has something that no one else has- or ever will have- something inside that is unique to all time. It's our job to encourage each other to discover that uniqueness and to provide ways of developing its expression."  ~~Mr. Fred Rogers

xoxo

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