This new spirituality of knitting addresses topics such as knitting as a popular pastime, what knitting does for our minds, bodies, and spirits, and how knitting helps people reduce stress, overcome loss, form friendships, and connect with a community. Most important, the author shows readers and crafters how knitting can become prayer.

In Knitting, Praying, Forgiving: A Pattern of Love and Forgiveness, Cheryl shares her story of faith and her journey to forgiving the young man who murdered her mother .She provides a user-friendly pattern to experience love and forgiveness with the craft of knitting and an ancient monastic prayer practice: Lectio Divina. You may find encouragement in Cheryl's story, and her pattern will help guide you to forgiveness one stitch at a time. "A grace-filled book for knitters and contemplatives, Knitting, Praying, Forgiving is a practical and inspirational guide to the transforming power of knitting God's love into shawls of forgiveness." - Susan S. Izard, co-author of Knitting into the Mystery "Cheryl Wunsch has an amazing story to tell, and she does so with great courage and compassion. Knitting, Praying, Forgiving lays out the path to a new life for anyone who has suffered at the hands of evil. I love this little book." -Paula Huston, author of A Season of Mystery and Simplifying the Soul. "Thoughtful and touching, Wunsch weaves together deep appreciation of a centuries-old prayer tradition with the needs of today. Her approach reminds me of the weaving of baskets prayerfully performed by the desert monks of long ago. Both spiritual and practical, this approach is another way to pray always." -Brother Bede Healey, OSB Cam. "Cheryl Wunsch weaves in her tender book Knitting, Praying, Forgiving a simple pattern of prayer, reflection, and craft (knitting) that abides as the heart of a loving and forgiving life. In the manner in which she knits her story, her prayer, and her practice together, Cheryl creates a radiant shawl of quiet that speaks powerfully as the fruit of faith and forgiveness." -Glenn Mitchell, spiritual director and director of training and programs for Oasis Ministries

Let A Homemade Year inspire you to discover new and creative ways to experience the rhythm of God's story in your home, with your family and friends, through fun, colorful crafts, party ideas, and recipes. Divided into seasons, A Homemade Year is filled with celebrations that you already observe and some you may never have heard of. May this book be a jumping-off point for creating joy and lasting memories through the church year. Praise for A Homemade Year “This energetic book is as useful as it is comforting. Christian formation begins in the home and A Homemade Year gives us ways and means of accomplishing that with joy, holiness, and a healthy portion of just plain, old-fashioned fun.” —Phyllis Tickle, author of The Divine Hours "I began reading A Homemade Year one afternoon when I had no fewer than a thousand things going on in my house. Almost immediately, I was drawn into Jerusalem Greer's beautiful writing and became fascinated with her journey through an entire year of liturgical celebrations---some of which (Advent, Epiphany) I celebrate in my own home, but some of which I never knew about before. Two hours later, I was still reading, happily resigned to letting my plans for the day slide. Jerusalem so clearly conveys the significance and beauty of liturgical tradition, and her celebration-specific recipes and crafts are sweet and meaningful, while at the same time completely "do-able" for everyone. This book is an absolute treasure. I want to share it with everyone I know!" —Ree Drummond, #1 New York Times Bestselling author of The Pioneer Woman Cooks “Like many moms, I’m longing to create a sense of rhythm and tradition in our lives and our home, and this sweet book gives many imaginative, practical places to start.” —Shauna Niequist, author of Bittersweet and Cold Tangerines “With waffle crumbs and bacon drippings and brown sugar crystals, Jerusalem Jackson Greer leaves a Hansel and Gretel-like path to follow as we travel through the seasons of the liturgical year. A Homemade Year gives families a wonderful sensory way to share and experience the Christian story at home. I was charmed and moved by this book.” —Sybil MacBeth, author of Praying in Color and Praying in Color for Kids “In a world that struggles to slow down and stay focused on what’s really important, A Homemade Year gives you new vision to do just that. I can’t wait to get started myself!” —Courtney Walsh, New York Times bestselling author of A Sweethaven Summer and Scrapbooking Your Faith

52 knitting-themed reflections for the over 53 million knitters who want to blend their passion and their faith.

Through stories, tips, and spiritual truths this book captures the joy of knitting and inspires readers to share their beautiful creations with those around them.

Human love, evolution, creative minds, disease, earthquakes, wars, skyscrapers & sonnets; the ever-present life-in-death/death-in-life & that ever-present duo of good & evil: ALL of these have their way of being through the en-choiring of sympathies/antipathies that make them as they are. This book explores this EVENTUM. There is a magic of belongingness at play, whereby the longing to belong (a plus finds its minus as a bee finds its flower): a power evident in all forms of life and being, just as Goldilocks finds the best porridge. So, we find ourselves on a planet where life fine-tunes a coming together of what belongs together: a real unia sympathetica en-choiring of sympathies. - Anything that has being (as any Rabbit, Robot, Roberta or Robert) are as they are because they manifest the belongingness of things. They en-choir, become a choir that sings its song: the resonance interacting with others to form new en-choirings - and the music plays on. This a music book. Follow the bouncing ball and sing along. How these harmonies relate to breakdowns of insanities that plague human existence, is not so easy to grasp. But the same dynamics apply! We are fine-tuned to what's sympathetic and what is not: same for worms and robins. Wars and the inhumanities we perform are due to fall-out from sympathies: this causes antipathies to take-over (Newtown). Mother Nature is neutral (Sandy Hook), but operates by the same dynamic of this longing to belong in sympathy; becoming the belongingness of what can be and is as it is: love or disease. This is a book about the simplicities of this complexity, which by their interplay birth coherences in the midst of chaos: rational-stable structures form in the mayhem of the random. - Those who stay in the saddle will ride with a new vision, a new faith for the journey - "from/of the Uttermost" - to Auguries. In this en-choiring of sympathies in the context of belongings, my poems and essays sing with a full choir of others: poetries all.

Enhanced with more than three hundred images, a comprehensive history of knitting in America includes twenty historical knitting patterns.

“Fascinating . . . What is remarkable about this book is that a history of knitting can function so well as a survey of the changes in women’s rolse over time.”—The New York Times Book Review An historian and lifelong knitter, Anne Macdonald expertly guides readers on a revealing tour of the history of knitting in America. In No Idle Hands, Macdonald considers how the necessity—and the pleasure—of knitting has shaped women’s lives. Here is the Colonial woman for whom idleness was a sin, and her Victorian counterpart, who enjoyed the pleasure of knitting while visiting with friends; the war wife eager to provide her man with warmth and comfort, and the modern woman busy creating fashionable handknits for herself and her family. Macdonald examines each phase of American history and gives us a clear and compelling look at life, then and now. And through it all, we see how knitting has played an important part in the way society has viewed women—and how women have viewed themselves. Assembled from articles in magazines, knitting brochures, newspaper clippings and other primary sources, and featuring reproductions of advertisements, illustrations, and photographs from each period, No Idle Hands capture the texture of women’s domestic lives throughout history with great wit and insight. “Colorful and revealing . . . vivid . . . This book will intrigue needlewomen and students of domestic history alike.”—The Washington Post Book World

The 1940s was a decade of exciting and prolific knitting activity. Scarcity of wools and dyes produced imaginative but stylish designs. This classic pattern book , now in paperback for 2021, is a treasury of patterns, adapted for today's yarns and needles, that will appeal to all handknitters and to anyone interested in the period. Over fifty patterns are featured , ranging from twinsets to hats with a variety of stitches. Illustrations show the garments as advertised in the 1940s and as re-knitted for today's wear. Introductions to the patterns make this a unique book that will inform, inspire and delight.

Chronic Hope helps parents of children living with chronic disease gain practical wisdom for managing the emotional stress of raising a chronically ill child, so they can navigate these challenges with grace, courage, and love.