Prayer Shawl For A Dear Friend

About three to four months ago a dear friend of mine (and her husband) lost their twin boys before they were full term. Soon after I found out, I started thinking of making her a prayer shawl.

We live many miles apart now and my hope is that when she wraps herself in this shawl that she feels the Lord’s warm embrace and all of the love and care that went into making it for her and her babes.

Free Prayer Shawl Patterns Online

I found so many beautiful patterns for shawls online and most of them were free. I found myself drawn to the cozier looking shawls just because to me they seemed to convey more of what I wanted to say which was comfort and warmth. In no particular order here is an incomplete list of some patterns I found and thought would make beautiful prayer shawls:

• Seraphina’s Shawl
• Easy/Spendid Triangle Shawl with Crochet Border by Lionbrand
• Magnificent Mantle at Crochet Kitten.com
• Seems Like Old Times Shawl (a free Ravelry download)
• Shoal from Berroco
• Striped Shawl #4254 by Bernat
• Have It Your Way Shawl by Lionbrand
• Comfort Shawl by Marcy Smith
• Easy Triangle Shawl with Fringe by Lionbrand
• Friendship Shawl by Karen Drouin

A Note on the Pattern I Chose

The pattern that I followed was the Homespun Wrap by Tohline. Even though the original pattern was intended to be striped I chose not to make it so. I made it out of Lionbrand Homespun yarn with blue, green and purple tones. I wanted to use a yarn that was warm and soft but also machine washable and dry-able.

I liked that each row was tied off and the ends became the shawl fringe – this would especially be convenient when making it striped thus eliminating the need to weave in any ends.

I chose to do a bit of decorative knotting to the ends as well.

This youtube video for double and triple knotted fringe was helpful.

Prayer Shawl Resources

These are a couple helpful books for people interested in blessing someone with a prayer shawl :

• The Prayer Shawl Companion: 38 Knitted Designs to Embrace Inspire & Celebrate Life by Janet Bristow and Victoria A. Cole-Galo
• The Crocheted Prayer Shawl Companion: 37 Patterns to Embrace, Inspire, and Celebrate Life Paperback by Janet Bristow and Victoria A. Cole-Galo

I checked out both of these books from the library. I found them very inspirational although I didn’t end up choosing a pattern from either. There were many nice poems, prayers and stories shared within each.

Also, the prayer shawl ministry home page website has tons of information including a few free basic patterns to get you started in both crochet or knit.