Shawls with prayer involved.

I suppose most of you have heard of prayer shawls before? They are traditional Jewish garments intended to be worn during prayer. However, some people make them for cancer victims and other people who are having health problems. The idea is that the maker of the shawl puts all kinds of good wishes into each stitch for the recipient. Our SNB was lucky enough to have a dear lady from Circle of Love, a prayer shawl ministry, come in and teach all the newbies in our group how to knit and crochet. In exchange, everyone made a shawl to donate to the local kidney dialysis patients. We had a lot of fun and it felt so good to be doing something nice for someone else with our creativity. However, I don't take naturally to generosity. I really, really wanted to keep mine. And while I tried to put good wishes in every stitch, I was watching Family Guy when I was making it...so a little more irreverence than prayer is probably in there.


Here's the shawl I made. I used a pattern from one of my vintage magazines. It's being modeled by the director of volunteer services at my college, Joyce.






This was Heather's first knitting attempt. It's more of a scarf than a shawl, and can also be used as a babushka.







This was also Sarah's first attempt at knitting--this girl learned to knit in TEN MINUTES. She's a prodigy. It took me four attempts over two years!



Last and least: I really, really hope I'm not as tiny as I look in this picture.



And a sweet picture of the neighbors' chickens hanging out in a tree.