Prayer Cloth with Cross

One of the members of the Prayer Cloth group, Joan, offered a very simple and nice pattern for a Prayer Cloth with a Cross in it. I have made a couple of them. Here is the first one, made with the original pattern. It is about 4 x 6 inches. Thank you, Joan!!!!


I made the Cross Prayer Cloth a second time, adding a slightly wider border. This made it come out almost a perfect small square. It is 5" wide and just under 5" high. I made a little border, too, between the arms of the cross, and the left and right edges, to deferentiate it from the wider border. I really like *both* versions. I am so happy with these Prayer Cloths, because they are so easy to do and knit up so *quickly*. Even though I know that getting a Prayer Shawl done is in *God's* timing, not mine, I still have such a hard time not feeling frustrated because I just cannot do shawls fast enough. For instance, a friend of mine from the Daughters of the King, had a heart attack on Monday. I was supposed to meet her and go to a nursing home to visit and bring a little treat. The DOK tries to do this at least once a month. At the last minute, I couldn't go ... I called and talked to my friend, late Monday morning. I had been thinking of calling her to see how things went when I got a prayer request that she'd had a heart attack and was in ICU! Well, I couldn't get a shawl made for her, but now I have this small but very lovely Prayer Cloth to take to her -- probably later this afternoon, though I need to find out if she can have visitors.

I have also started making prayer cloths for the SFASU students who are Orthodox (OCF). Here is a pic of one of them. It's a lot bigger -- about 10" square. As I look at this pic, I think I have finally gotten the proportions about as good as they will get. I would like to work on making a smaller version, though. The small Prayer Cloth with the simple cross took me about an hour, whereas the Orthodox Prayer Cloth took me *four* hours! I don't think I can get it as small as the simple cross, but I'd love to be able to do one in a couple of hours. The reason is that it is easier to justify taking 2 hours out from my work to pray and knit than four. . .

Log Cabin Prayer Blanket UPDATE!!!

Here is the photograph of the Log Cabin Prayer Blanket for my spiritual mother with the green sections completed. Since taking this photograph, I have started working on the Blues, beginning with "Blue Mint" -- and it is so beautiful! It doesn't look nearly as nice on the skein as it does when you begin to work with it!
The blanket is now about 30" square, so approximately half-way, I think. I have started with Blue Mint which is one of the Simply Soft "Brites". Then, I will add a couple of the shades of Country Blue, all of which have a lot of grey in them. The transition color will be Blue Berry, and then I will go into the purples and lavenders. There are so many beautiful shades, it will be difficult to choose just 3 of them, but I need to do that so that the blanket doesn't become too big and unwieldy. After the purples and lavenders, I will do 3 neutrals: brown, grey and black. Finally, I will add the scarlet from the center all the way around, and that final square is going to be wider than all the others -- probably the width of the center square, which is 8". Anything between 60" and 72" will be fine with me. Each time I begin a new square, though, the logs get that much longer. Also, it's becoming a *larger* project to carry around, but I did take it to the Prayer Shawl meeting this week. I needed something *very* relaxing to respond to a stressful day, and this project is very relaxing and even more important, it is such a deep JOY for me!

Noro Silk Garden!

I promised that I would let my Yahoo groups know what special or luxury yarn I decided on and what I did with it! Well, a few weeks ago, I bought 3 skeins of Noro Silk Garden in the 08 color, which is all of my favorite colors: blues, greens, purples and lavenders. It is so gorgeous! It is 45% SILK, 45% kid mohair and 10% merino wool. It doesn't feel as soft on the needles, but the minute that you put a knitted piece to your skin, wow! It is really soft and wonderful! I really enjoyed knitting with it. I used #8 needles, which were recommended, and I knit a straight strip about 8" wide and about 45" long. I hadn't done anything nice with the side edges, so I added a single crochet border. I like the effect. Then, I did that 180 degree twist and created a moebius wrap! It is so easy! I then sewed up the sides. I am not entirely satisfied with my sewing, but it kind of blends in. The women at my Prayer Shawl group helped me, and it truly was a *big* help to have people showing me, rather than just trying to follow a diagram. I'd done this before but not for a while. I have mainly been knitting items that don't need to be sewed up.

I am very pleased with the results, and I am probably going to buy some more Noro Silk Garden to make the capelet. This will be something very special for my mother. The moebius wrap will probably go to my friend in Australia...

PICTURE COMING!

Capelet in Simply Soft Shadows

Here are a couple of pictures of one of the projects I have been working on. I am not sure what to call it -- a capelet? A ponchette? I have even seen the word "ponchini". I found it in the book Sally Melvilled did on the Knit Stitch. She has some really neat projects in there that are done entirely with the Knit stitch. I have done Joel's Scarf and it came out very, very nicely. A couple of weeks ago, I went ahead and ordered some Noro Silk Garden yarn. It is so pretty! Then, I set about trying to find a *simple* pattern to show off the wonderful colors. It is *not* easy to find a truly *simple* pattern! When I saw this one, it was actually done in Noro Silk Garden and I knew immediately it was what I wanted to make! However -- I wanted to "practice" first -- so I have made it up here in Caron Simply Soft Shadows. It is the Dark Moss color. It came out beautifully and it *looks* like the one in the book (except it is a different color). The only thing I will do differently the next time, is begin with a garter or seed stitch border, so that it doesn't roll up. I hate that! I haven't blocked it yet -- probably tomorrow, and Sally M. promises that most of that roll will go away. But since I am not really constrained to not use a purl stitch as she was, I will add that border. I just didn't think about it when I started the project. I tried to "fix" it with a crochet border, but I don't think it helped the rolling up much.