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- Around Town
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Once upon a time, shawls were worn on an every day basis and served many uses. On the frontier farm, a woven wool shawl could be thrown on for a quick run to the hen house, the garden or the milk barn. Dressier ones were for Sunday best, church services, weddings, christening and funerals. Many a Victorian couple posed for their wedding portrait, the bride-to-be wearing a family heirloom shawl. Shawls have long been depicted in drawings and old photographs, worn around the upper torso of all classes of the population. Illustrations preserved from Godey’s Ladies Book and mail order catalogues are excellent examples. Plus, what little girl going to the Saturday matinee of the black and white “B” Western in their heyday did not notice the women’s stylish shawls, especially those of the heroine?
Quoting from the book “Knitting into the Mystery, A Guide to the Shawl-Knitting Ministry” written by spiritual director Susan S. Jorgensen and ordained minister Susan S. Izard….”When they [Bristow and Galo] graduated, they were encouraged to carry on the spirit of the class through some kind of project. During the Institute, they encountered the empowerment and wisdom of the Divine Feminine. It was in that spirit that they felt called to knit shawls for mothers and women with breast cancer. The word spread and other members began knitting. Soon shawls were being knit for many purposes, including important celebrations”.
Since that enthusiastic beginning in 1998, The Shawl Knitting Ministry has spread throughout the world. Almost from inception, it began including other forms of needlework into the process of making shawls, like machine knitting, crochet, quilting, weaving and sewing. Beads may appear on knitted or crocheted shawls. The fabrics are sometimes embellished with paint, lace, beads and buttons. None are ever sold; they are made and given with love, accompanied by appropriate prayers.
The prayer shawls serve many purposes, sometimes to help with recovery from illness or grief, sometimes in celebration of a wedding or birth. Writing in 1998, Prayer Shawl Ministry co-creator Bristow explained: “Shawls… made for centuries universal and embracing, symbolic of an inclusive, unconditionally loving, God. They wrap, enfold, comfort, cover, give solace, mother, hug, shelter and beautify. Those who have received these shawls have been uplifted and affirmed, as if given wings to fly above their troubles.”
Those who make the shawls also find themselves uplifted and affirmed, as evidenced by this columnist attending a recent two-hour session at the Lansing home of John and Karen Hays. What began in January of 2005 as an informal “Let’s learn how to knit” group, social but spiritual, has since moved under the umbrella of Women’s Ministry at the Hays’ church. The Caring Committee of the Women’s Ministry invited the knitting group to join the Caring Committee in the making of prayer shawls. Host Karen Hays explained that “gave purpose to our group”.
They remain intent on that purpose, between five and nine of them meeting “at about 7 pm and knitting for a couple of hours” the second and fourth Tuesday of each month. Except for very brief introduction of each woman to this columnist, these women KNITTED! Of course, they also talked about everything under the sun, caught up on news, answered all my questions and admired each other’s projects. Several of the women had knitted for years; some were newbies. One had decided to take a break from knitting and was teaching herself to crochet.
I enjoyed one of my favorite scenes several times over at the start of their session. I always enjoy watching a knitter go through the ritual of taking her project out of its bag, carefully holding the needle with the work on it in one hand, the empty needle in the other, settling into her chair, pushing the cap of the empty needle against her leg and then inserting it into the first loop to take up where she‘d left off the last time she knitted.
We talked at length about the several shawls that had been made over the past year for members of their congregation who had suffered personal losses. They happily recited the color of yarn, the size needle, the pattern of each and what occasioned its making. So far, all shawls have been given locally, “because there is such a need right here.”
After a few chuckles over the comment “I’ve quite enjoyed her pregnancy”, and discussions of a celebration shawl for the expected baby, an informal count of the ones underway by those present lasted well into the evening. They were in various stages of completion, in beautiful yarns, and exhibited unique design elements while adhering to the intended expression of The Trinity in the stitches.
The 4-year-old granddaughter of the hostess was quite serious in debating whether she would learn to knit when she was six. Or would she wait until she became eight years old?
The seven-year-old daughter of a woman who was going to pick up her shawl project “after just a few more rows on this [pair of intricate Fair Isle socks]” was in the process of making a tube several yards long on her “Knitting Nancy”. It might be called a toy, were it not taken so seriously by the young people who actually do use the Knitting Nancy as a preliminary step in learning to knit.
When the shawl was picked up to be worked on, the Mother explained how one of her “best” knitting needles had been broken. She worked the yarn off the unbroken one onto a new set of bamboo needles. She said she was quite pleased with the feel, comfort and speed of the new ones, which opened up the new topic of favorite needles.
As the two hours of knitting ended, I marveled again over the enormity of what two women of faith were able to create with a shawl, one of the oldest garments known to exist. That is, The Prayer Shawl Ministry.
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