What are "prayer shawls," anyway? Some answers.

I make "prayer shawls" for the church (First Congregational UCC).

What are they? They are hand-knitted or crocheted shawls about 3 x 6 or 7 feet ( 1 x 2 m) - big enough to wrap around a grown person - done in any pattern the knitter or crocheter prefers, with any soft, comfortable yarn. I like Caron Simply Soft but most people in the group use Homespun.

What do they have to do with prayer? That's pretty much just a name. They are not for putting on when you pray, nor are they prayed over - although some prayer shawl groups do that.

What are they used for? For people who have a crisis or a celebration (a birth, illness, or bereavement, for instance) to wrap up in and realize that someone knows about them and is thinking about them.

Who makes them? Some ladies from the church. Men are also welcome, but they rarely have the skills. Several of these ladies meet twice a month, but most of the work is done at home.

When are they given away? After being washed and dried, the shawls are packed in clear plastic zip-up bags with a paper printed with a blessing. The pastoral minister keeps them on hand. She knows about the events in people's lives and is in charge of distributing the shawls. We used to do this, but it was hit and miss knowing about who needed one.

Where do they go? See above. Once they are given away, they are out of our hands and the recipients are free to use them, stash them, give them away, or even sell them at a garage sale if they want.

Why do we make them? They help people understand that they are not forgotten, that someone is thinking about them while they are dealing with whatever it is. The recipients often send us a note saying how much they appreciate receiving a shawl and thanking us. Many others don't ever contact us, but we hear back from the pastoral minister what their reaction was - and it is always positive. We've never had a curmudgeon snarl at us for high-handedly deciding that they needed a shawl.

Dark with light stripes between

This one's going to have about 8 or 9 inch stripes in dark colors separated by 2-inch stripes of variegated neon colors. So far I have purple, bright stripe, dark country blue, bright stripe, dark sage green, bright stripe, chocolate brown. Coming up: deep red, mulberry, purple, dark blue. All done in 01010 shell stitch by Sarah of Engineered Crochet.

This is supposed to be rotated left but I can't make it do it.

Light blue shawl

There was a lot of light blue yarn left over from the "Three Blues" shawl, so I thought of doing one entirely in one color for a change. To keep the boredom factor down, it's in stripes of different patterns. Finished: Feb. 13, 2019. Scroll down to see the shawl lengthwise displaying the different stitches, then a closeup of some of the stitches. The top picture is close to the real color of the yarn.
01010 10010 01010 10001 01010 01100 01010 ...
There are stripes of 01010 in between the fancier stitches to fill it out. Sarah of Engineered Crochet, who came up with these stitches, says that 01010 is mindless and goes fast, and it does; the pattern is not particularly interesting, though.

01001 and 10010 look different, surprisingly. 01100 and 00110 are probably pretty much the same.

The 10001 stripe is slightly narrower (side-to-side) than the rest, causing the shawl to have a very slight inward curve to the edge at that point.

Stitches about 1 1/2 life size. 10010 at top, 10001 in middle, 01010 at bottom.

The previous shawl before the blue one

I didn't get this one into the blog when it was made, but here it is now. This one was done in 10010, which I won't do again - required too much concentration. I used up some old skeins on this one. Caron Simply Soft in a variety of colors. The narrow maroon stripe is a different but comparable yarn.

Three blues shawl

Done in three colors of blue. I'd like to try four colors or five if I could find them, to get a more nuanced appearance.

This one uses Caron Simply Soft in Dark Country Blue, Berry, and Light Blue (or Soft Blue, can't remember). It is made with Sarah's "Engineered Crochet" (q.G.) 01010 stitch. Pleasantly warm.

I would like to try one with narrower stripes in Dark County Blue, Medium Country Blue, Light Country Blue, and a lighter blue.
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Update on tatting

No. 80 thread at last - "tatting cotton" by DMC. Ecru.

Honi soit qui mal y pense

I found this printed-for-embroidery linen bridge cloth in my grandmother's stuff when we were tending to her estate in 1977. I embroidered it while we were there in Tennessee, then lost track of it. I thought (and regretted) that it was gone forever to some dump. But it turned up when Clint cleaned out some drawers in the garage.

There are hollyhocks in three corners. The bee covers a stain on the material.

 I also embroidered a butterfly and something that looks like a pupa, but has antennae, to hide a larger stain.

The main motif is two Victorian ladies having tea. I chose the colors. Hence the title of the post.