Art and Prayers . . .

. . . can certainly go together. Recently my fine knitter of a sister introduced me to the "prayer shawl" movement. She and a group of her knitter friends get together regularly to create shawls and throws which, once finished, are blessed by the church and delivered to those in need. Some are taken to patients in the hopitals, others to nursing homes. They are freely given to the sick, healing and grieving among us.

Although my limited understanding of the history of this movement is that it is of Christian origin, certainly the shawls are not limited to those followers. My interpretation is that anyone who wishes to can knit, crochet, weave or otherwise create a comforting blanket of fiber while instilling his or her positive prayers, thoughts and/or energy. As an artist, I believe strongly that a bit of the energy and intention of the creator of any piece of art lives within that piece forevermore.

I'm now on my third shawl, having sent the first to a friend who is fighting cancer. It was knit in Homespun "Quartz."

Quartz

The second went to an aunt in her 80s and was knit in Homespun "Tudor."

Tudor

It looked exactly like the one of the cover of this first book. I have been using Lion Brand Homespun yarn which knits up into a soft and cuddly shawl and, by the way, comes in no less than 66 colors. If you are interested in taking up needle or hook, here are the books I recommend as a start.

If you are interested in purchasing any of these books, you can click on them in the "carousel" in the bottom left column of this blog and you will be taken right to amazon.com to make your purchase. The amazon.com prices for these books, in order, are $9.37, $9.37 and $13.57. Happy knitting!