This is the pattern for making a prayer shawl. I thought I could do it, just cast on 54 stitches and start.
I read the instructions and the printed prayers for the shawl and quickly said a prayer; praying that I could remember how to knit. The counting takes all of my concentration and although I could remember how to do the stitches, the task of keeping a smooth tension in the yarn was something else. Knit 3 Purl 3 – repeat…The stiches continued and the pattern began to take shape. Knit 3 Purl 3….I began to remember how I learned this craft in an afterschool knitting club when I was in fourth grade, being taught by a sixth grader. I remember the girls knitting in a circle and I say a prayer for them, hoping that Christ had been a part of their lives and had brought them comfort through the years. Knit 3 Purl 3…. I thought about my mother and the hundreds of Afghans she knitted and crocheted in her later years. I prayed for her safety and her comfort as she lives out her years. I pray that she knows what a blessing she was to others. Knit 3 Purl 3…..The yarn is stretchy and the needles are large. Somehow the uneven tension begins to right itself and the shawl begins to take shape. I think about how God takes my imperfections and they are smoothed over by His grace; I say a prayer of thanks. As I finished the prayer shawl, I thanked God for the opportunity to make it and for the time it gave me to think and pray. I prayed one more time for the person who will receive the shawl. May it bring comfort and peace to them as they feel God’s arms around them in a time of need.