My New Year's prayer for you

This is my New Year's wish for each of us...

Support young knitters

It's wonderful seeing young girls knit.  It's even more wonderful to see them using their knitting gifts to help others.  Take a look at this wonderful project.

My new home

I've been promising an update on my homebuying experience and I wrote it this morning. Since it has little obvious connection to this ministry or knitting, I decided to post it on my other blog. Please feel free to read it there.

Straightening circular needles

A frequent complaint I hear from knitters (especially new knitters) making one of our prayer shawls is that the circular needles curl up and get in the way of their knitting. Because the shawls are knit lengthwise (175 stitches cast on), this could be a bit of a problem if you're not used to working with circulars. Addi offers some great advice for straightening circular needles.

Another chemo cap charity

Knitting and crocheting chemo caps seems to be a favorite charitable knitting project. The caps are usually quick, inexpensive and portable projects. And whose heart doesn't break every time they see a child or woman who's lost her hair during treatment? Knots-of-Love has some wonderful chemo cap patterns and I'm sure they'd love to have any that you'd care to donate.

A very special prayer ministry

I've often commented on how amazed I am about the generosity of some people, and how blessed we are to have the Internet, when it's used properly, of course. Today I discovered the most amazing website. Called TweetYourPrayers.com, anyone in the world can send a prayer via Twitter to this site and they will print your prayer, along with many others, and hand-deliver them to the prayer wall in Jerusalem, for free!

My first instinct was to jump on my Twitter account and send a prayer. Now would be an especially good time to do that since I put an offer on a home today. But, I haven't been able to send a prayer yet. Even though it's free, and presumably I could send as many prayers as I want to, there's something incredibly sacred about this ministry. I refuse to just send any prayer to be placed on that holy wall. I'm going to have to think long and hard about what my prayer will be. The fact that I feel that way reminds me how blessed I truly am.

Lion Brand offers free patterns

Great news! Lion Brand is now offering all of their online patterns for FREE. They have some great patterns, for both charity knitting and other things as well, and free is always great. Be sure to check out their pattern finder at LionBrand.com. Enjoy!

A soulful knitting testimony

I've recently started corresponding with a knitter from England (I live in Virginia) who is exploring the possibility of starting a knitting ministry in her church. Vivienne's e-mails have been so uplifting and inspiring, and quite timely with respect to some specific things I've been praying about.

With her permission, I'm sharing the e-mail message I received from her this morning:

I had to write and tell you my news. I have started to knit a prayer shawl(on my own). I dragged out my stash of wool, sorted through it, found some lovely soft wool in browns, pinks and beige. I am knitting stripes with more pink than the browns, as I have more pink wool. I just sort of made it up as I went along, dedicated my work to Him, prayed as I knitted and on Sunday, took it to church with me and knitted through the meeting. There is a young art student who attends my church, she sits at the back every week and paints, it's her way of glorifying God. So I sat on the floor, just behind her, and we had a creative huddle! Her painting, me knitting.

I experienced something I didn't expect though, I felt God's love moving down my arms into my fingers and into the shawl. This is all new to me, but I do feel blessed that God has given me this gift, to be able to create something beautiful and Holy out of 2 sticks and some string. :)

You have no idea how excited I am, this is day 3 of my prayer shawl experiment, and already God has opened my eyes to ways of serving Him I never dreamed of.

What a wonderful expression of what Soulful Knitting is all about.

100-year celebration

Happy 100th Birthday to Muriel Dale of England. She's knit over 1,100 teddy bears for Teddies for Tragedies, an organization that sends the knitted bears to children all over the world. Now that's a Soulful Knitter!

Dealing with stains on your knitting

If you've been knitting for a while, I'm sure you know how frustrating it is to find a spot on something you've made. In that first split second, you're reminded of all of those hours you spent knitting/crocheting that sweater. According to a tip on LionBrand.com, a small mixture of mild soap or shampoo and water dabbed on the spot should remove it. This supposedly will work on all fibers, but I obviously can't guarantee that, but it may be worth a try.

Need another excuse for knitting?

According to research at the Mayo Clinic, knitting is believed to delay memory loss. An article published in BBC News states that "Those who had during middle age been busy reading, playing games or engaging in craft hobbies like patchworking or knitting were found to have a 40% reduced risk of memory impairment."

Even though I've decided that "middle age" doesn't begin before 70, I'm adding this to my list of reasons why I love getting my knitting on!

So many charities, so little time

Here's a list of knitting charities compiled by Interweave Knits that covers practically any group or any type of project that you might be interested in. If you're not already doing so, please commit to dedicating a portion of your knitting time to knitting for others. It's a wonderful way to bless someone else with your talent and generosity.

If you're aware of other organizations not on this list, please feel free to post them with a link to their website here.

Planting seeds

This morning I submitted my book to an official literary agency. If I stopped to think about it, I'd probably be nervous. But, I'm not stopping to think about it.

I'm learning to plant as many seeds as I can, in as many fertile spots as I can. I water and fertilize them with prayers and then wait to see how God chooses you use them. If they bear fruit for me, great. But if they bear fruit in the lives of others, even better!

My biggest knitting project yet

Confession. I don't spend all of my knitting time on charitable projects. Sometimes I decide to take on a challenging project. Last fall I made this afghan as a Christmas gift to a very special person in my life. It took months, but I think the end result was worth the effort. I know he was.

If you're interested in the pattern, it's called Lovers Knot Afghan, and can be found free at Lion Brand's pattern finder.

Coming home

Hello,

I've been away from this blog for several months now, but I haven't stopped knitting or this ministry. Lots has been happening. There are several exciting new developments in the works, I've met some wonderful people and have some moving stories to share, and I'll be announcing some exciting soulful knitting-related events soon.

I'm spending much of August preparing to relaunch my book, The Joy of Soulful Knitting. Initial interest has been amazing, so if you haven't read it, please do. You'll enjoy it. It's also a great discussion tool for knitting groups/ministries, so please pass the word.

Please plan to come back soon so I can bring you up to date on my soulful knitting journey and you can join me along the way.

Blessings!

Knitting against all odds

According to an article in today's Telegraph (UK), a 98-year-old woman who was pulled alive from amidst the rubble left by the devestating earthquake in the town of L'Aquila in Italy told rescuers that she spent the time knitting while she waited 30 hours to be saved. Incredible.

Divine appointments

I love divine appointments, especially the unexpected ones that happen when I do something that I know I need to do, but don't really want to do. It's always nice to be reminded that God can turn virtually any situation into an opportunity for a blessing.

Last week I attended a banquet for work. Despite the free food, I really didn't want to go, but it's part of my job, so off I went. Being an introvert, I was not at all happy when my boss asked me to sit next to the guest speaker's wife to keep her company. I had no doubt that she was a lovely woman, but I'm just not good at small talk. But again, it's part of my job, so I smiled and pulled up a chair.

Almost immediately I knew that this was no ordinary obligatory seating arrangement. It didn't take long for us to discover that we share a passion for knitting. What was even better was to realize that we both belong to knitting ministries at our churches. Imagine our surprise when we invited each other to our respective knitting groups, only to realize that our churches are no more than two miles away, on the same street!

Needless to say, I had an absolutely wonderful time getting to know more about my new knitting friend and sister in Christ. I'm looking forward to knitting with her very soon and am so excited to see what God has in store for us. After all, our meeting was no accident.