Prayer Shawl Donations

My Mom, my Grandmother and I have all been inspired to make prayer shawls lately. Here are three that Grandma has made and contributed to the charity cause. Grandma is by FAR the most productive knitter of the three of us.

The almond colored one is a Deborah Bliss yarn in her Serenity yarn line. The purple ones uses yarn stash and scraps. The red multi-colored one is from a yarn line called Rainbow Classic - it's acrylic yarn that comes in a big huge skein for $9.99 at Joanne's.



My Mom made this lovely Easy Triangular shawl that is a free pattern from the Lion Brand website. Hers is made in Deborah Norville's Serenity line of yarn in the Forest Green colorway.


The one I finished last week is the Old Shale shawl made from JT Brett's Marble line in a bright spring colorway called "Wildflowers" that I mentioned previously. I LOVE this yarn because it comes in huge varigated balls of yarn - nearly 400 yards for $12 - you can't beat that. The colorways are gorgeous. This wrap uses a very simple pattern that I was given by WineDivaDesigns. Here is the stitch pattern for anyone interested.

For mine (I used a bulky yarn and size 11 or 13 needles):
Cast on 72
Purl two rows
Row 1: knit
Row 2: purl
Row 3: K2tog (3 times), YO, K1 (6 times), K2tog (6 times), YO, K1 (6 times), K2tog (6 times), YO, K1 (6 times), K2tog (6 times), YO, K1 (6 times), K2tog (3 times)
Row 4: knit
Continue until you are almost out of yarn, ending with a Row 2. Purl two more rows and cast off loosely. Weave in ends.

This makes a very easy shawl to knit up in a hurry and is fairly mindless. The pattern it produces makes a scallop design. We like to use acrylic yarn so that they are inexpensive to make, yet washable.

By the way, if you are interested in making Prayer Shawls at all, there is a very active and friendly Prayer Shawl group over on Ravelry. We all kind of keep each other inspired by stories of what we are making, sharing patterns and tips, as well as a few really moving stories about those who have received the shawls. You don't often get to actually meet the recipients of the shawls, but knowing they are going to people in crisis makes my normal life seem easier somehow.

One last thing, here is an article called "Blanketing People With God's Healing Love" that describes how prayer shawls have been used by the American Red Cross to bring comfort to those in crisis.