Knit & Purl Group
Volunteers knit and crochet faith and hope into hats and scarves to be donated to area shelters, baby blankets for donation to foster children programs, and shawls and lap quilts to seniors in nursing homes and anyone who has experienced a life changing trauma.
Prayers for the recipient are said as each shawl or quilt is begun and upon completion.
The combined Knit & Purl and Prayer Shawl Ministries meetings are held the 3rd Wednesday of the month; however, you need not be present to be a participant. You can make the items from the comfort of your home, while traveling, laying on the beach or anywhere, and donate them.
If you are interested in participating and are in need of yarn, patterns, instruction or assistance, please contact the church office.
History of Shawls
The word “shawl” comes into the English language in 1662, from the Persian word shAl.
Shawls have been made for centuries;
They are universal and embracing;
They comfort and enfold; wrap and warm;
Mother and hug; shelter and beauty.
Those who knit and receive shawls are loved and blessed
A group of women who participated in the first Women’s Leadership Institute at Hartford Seminary, Hartford, Connecticut, began this shawl knitting ministry in 1998. Vicky Galo started knitting shawls for women who were undergoing treatment for breast cancer and other illnesses; Janet Bristol started knitting shawls for new mothers. Other members of the Institute began knitting shawls for their friends, family members, and people who just needed a shawl.
People knit shawls for many different reasons. Shawls celebrate birthdays and anniversaries, friends and love, and professional and personal achievements. If one could wear the heartfelt sentiments often found in a greeting card, it would be as a shawl. Shawls console those who are grieving, comfort those who are ill, bring hope to those who are in despair. Parents knit shawls for their children; children knit shawls for aging parents. The reasons to knit a shawl are as numerous as the people who knit and receive them.
Cathy Murtha, a Daughter of Wisdom and director of the Spiritual Life Center in Bloomfield, Connecticut, introduced this ministry to many people at the Spiritual Life Center. Cathy creates Wisdom Mantles for marking significant passages in women’s lives when they claim their unique gift of Wisdom.
Susan S. Izard, a Unity Church of Christ minister at First Church in West Hartford, Connecticut, wrote an article about this shawl knitting ministry for Presence: The Journal to Spiritual Directors International in September 2000. As a result, people all over the world are knitting and receiving these wonderful gifts of love.
This ministry continues to grow. When you knit your shawl, you are connected with many people throughout the world. May you knit the shawl you give away with love, may you be blessed by the shawls that you knit and receive, and may you extend that blessing to those you love.
(This text adapted by Susan S. Jorgensen from the original by Victoria A. Cole-Galo and Janet Bristow. 2002.) From Knitting Into the Mystery, A Guide to the Shawl Knitting Ministry by Susan S. Jorgensen and Susan S. Izard.
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