Prayer Shawl Ministry update

As a group, we've been knitting and crocheting our hearts out since the beginning of the year. The results were on display this past Sunday, April 26th before the entire congregation for our very first mass blessing. What a wonderful way to included everyone in the spirit of the ministry!

To date we've completed the following to be dispensed to our shut-ins, sick, elderly or otherwise in need:

24 Shawls, 23 Scarves, 6 Lap Robes, 6 Afghans/Blankets, & 5 Hats

64 completed projects in 4 months! Wow! What an amazing group we have. However, realize that it's not only the hands of these ladies at work but, the hearts of the entire congregation. It takes every person in the church to make a ministry thrive.

Prayer Shawl Ministry update

It's been so long since I posted about the group. We been making leaps and bounds into the direction we want to go.

Due to lack of storage space, growing yarn and project stash I moved all of the goodies to the church, once I found a spot. Our church, which is older and has a huge Sunday School extension, was considering sharing space with another smaller congregation for awhile and the extra rooms that we had available were on hold until those issues were ironed out. Three weeks ago we were assigned our official room (pictured below)!

The past two weeks have been spent clearing out the old tidbits and remnants from the previous usage. As I'm only at church on Sundays and Wednesdays and occupied for most of that time, this was a slower process than I'd hoped. Our most recent meeting was the last Sunday in March and we were unable to meet in our room because there were still lots of craft items to be relocated. However, I finished that up last week and we'll be able to use the room fully now! (Special thanks to Linda S. and Lauren T. for helping move all of our goodies from our old spot to the new room.)



Remaining stash





Bins laden with finished projects!



To date we have 20 people signed up in the ministry and most are very active. We have 18 shawls, 5 lap robes, 19 scarves, 4 children's hats, and 4 baby blankets turned in! Phenomenal, especially if you consider that 1/2 of the participants maintain a full-time position and a few are suffering from illnesses themselves.



Finished projects




As we won't be limiting ourselves to shawls, we've decided to take on a more descriptive name for the ministry. We're a Moravian (not Mormon - that's a little different) congregation and our motto is:

In essentials, unity;

In non-essentials, liberty;

and in all things, love.

Jesus said that the greatest of these is love and since we're attempting to share that love with others we decided to name the ministry "Wrapped in Love". It's very apt, don't you think?


Our first blessing is scheduled for Sunday, April 26th, at which time we will bless our work alongside the entire congregation during worship. The following week members will begin dispensing the projects to our sick, shut-ins, and anyone else that we find in need in the congregation.



Our goal is to eventually be able to branch out further into the community. Perhaps we can team up with some nursing facilities, Hospice, cancer treatment centers, and the like. We're looking into this now. If you have any ideas or links, please let me know. I'd also love to hear about the great things you're doing or wish to do in your work.

Knitting Needle Pouch

Along with all of this great yarn that has been donated to the Prayer Shawl Ministry we received 6 gauges and a partially completed sweater (cabled and beautiful!) Most of the gauges were very small, 3"x3", but there weren't enough of them to make anything with, raveled or unraveled. One was larger, but made of a very scratchy wool and kind of an odd color.

On the verge of throwing out this handful of scrap, it occurred to me that I could make something out of the larger piece but I wasn't sure what. It was such a shame that we couldn't use all of them.

Later that day, I decided to make a needle pouch with this lone gauge. Originally, it was intended to hold the needles that were being donated for the ministry. By the next day it had been outgrown! It became mine by default - I traded some of my scraps for it...

The gauge was fairly square. I folded it in half, stitched up two sides leaving an opening at the top, and filled it with my meager needle stash. I have to admit that it is significantly better than the gallon sized plastic bag I was using!

Completed Baby Blanket

This is my first baby blanket! It's made for our prayer shawl ministry and from donated yarns. I think it turned out ok. It's not as soft as I had hoped for and maybe that's due to the combining of the yarn. The yellow was super soft on the skein, but it's a little rougher now that it's knitted.

I did run out of yarn a little sooner than I'd hoped. I guess some lucky premie will be the recipient of this blanket, otherwise it may be too small...

Completed Lap Robe

Last week led me to explore the possibility of making a lap robe for the Prayer Shawl Ministry. I started it on Wednesday and two days later received a phone call about a man that was in a terrible situation health wise. The caller stated that she thought he might benefit from something from our ministry. God works in mysterious ways doesn't He?

This one began as a single piece in a basket weave design. Somehow in the first seven rows I ended up off one stitch, which would've messed up the basket weave. I frogged the original project due to my inability to let mistakes go without a fight. Besides, I was only seven rows in.

The next thing that came to mind was to piece together something from individual squares. I think it ended up more rectangular than square, but the overall effect I like and it seems to be the perfect size. This is constructed from mill ends of a fairly soft yarn in two different greens: mint and army. Great for a man, don't you think?

Prayer Shawl Ministry Update

Take a look at the amount of items already made for the Prayer Shawl Ministry! AMAZING! These two bags are full of scarves and shawls. Even more amazing...there are more in the making as we speak.

And can you believe that all of this has already been donated to make more? I'm happy to say that I'm rapidly running out of space and storage ideas for all of these goodies. What a wonderful problem to have.

When I look around at these lovely colors and lovingly, hand crafted items I'm almost rendered speechless. To think of the time, effort, care, love, and concern that went into each tiny stitch and to know that God's love emanates from each and every piece...now that's amazing!

By the way - these nice storage bags are recycled. For other great ideas for reusing zippered, plastic storage bags visit my other blog - The Simple Life.

First Prayer Shawl meeting scheduled!

Yay! I finally scheduled our first Prayer Shawl meeting at church. I compiled a lot of information over Christmas vacation with free pattern links for knitting and crochet. Some of these have already been shared with you, but I did find 2 more that I really like - Crochet Pattern Central which also includes a tips and tricks section and Knitty Chick offering everything from patterns to recipes and a blog!

Our first meeting will be on Sunday, January 25th, immediately after church. It's an organizational meeting, so we won't actually work on our projects that day. We'll be deciding on a name for the group and picking our future meeting dates. We will also decide how we will choose recipients and how we will package the shawls.

I can't wait to get started! Keep us in your prayers, please, as we need all the help we can get to be sure and head in the right direction with this ministry.

Stay tuned for more photos of completed projects. I have a fleece prayer shawl that I've put together for those not inclined to knit or crochet. With fleece you can do everything you need with a pair of scissors. You can even do this if you have arthritis courtesy of a pair of electric scissors! I'm adding an embroidered cross to one end, just to jazz it up a little bit. As soon as the embroidery is finished I'll post a picture for you.

Prayer Shawl Ministry

Exploring the craft stores can lead you to many things. Sometimes it leads you to spending more money, sometimes to new crafts, and occasionally to your next great idea. Recently, I found my next great idea.

Browsing the knitting and crochet "how to" books lead me to a wonderful discovery. Two Prayer Shawl Ministry books caught my eye. Published by Leisure Books and sponsored by Lion Brand yarn, these books are marvelous. They each contain prayers, thoughts and ideas along with knitting and crochet patterns for several shawls.

Prayer Shawls are often offered up as a confirmation of God's love for each of us. Each shawl is handmade, with love, by a member of the ministry group. As the shawl is made it is regularly prayed over and upon completion receives one final blessing before being gifted to a chosen recipient. Most recipients are home bound or have an illness, but these can be given for any number of things. As I flipped through the books I longed to purchase them, but I often put things up to go home and pray about how best to spend my funds.

Several days later these books were still on my mind and my heart. I went back to see them again. Again, I left without them. The next day I overhead a conversation at another store that mentioned these shawls as a good idea. I knew that was my final nudge. When I returned the following week, both books were on sale...God's final confirmation that this was for me...He knows I can't pass up a sale!

Once I had the books and did a little more research on the computer I knew this would be a fabulous ministry for my church. Approval by the pastor and board immediately followed in December. We will start 2009 with this new ministry!

This is the first shawl offered into service...

The shawl is stockinette stitch. It's composed of Lion's Brand Homespun in Windsor Blue. The combination of color and stitching lends itself to the appearance of flowing water. Gorgeous!

There's nothing better than sharing your God given talents!