I just finished knitting a "prayer shawl" for Julia Rose. She was very excited about it and picked out the yarn when we were visiting my best friend and talented knitter Jan Smith in Colorado. Julia picked a dark gray yarn with soft white blending.

What makes the prayer shawl special is that you think about the person you are knitting it for everytime you pick up the project. Sometimes that plunges you into a reverie of knitting and daydreaming about the person, with positive thoughts flowing through your flying fingers into the shawl. Sometimes it just gives you a few breathing moments to remember how much you care about the intended recipient.

I do not have time to knit!! But everytime Julia said "Is it almost done?" I remembered to get busy on my special project. And then I found myself looking forward to picking up the soft bundle. Sometimes I'd knit while Julia and I talked about her day just before bedtime. When I visited Robert at Suffolk University a few weeks ago we stayed up late and watched TV and talked while I knitted.  I discovered what a great relaxation this enterprise provided as it allowed me to watch Ugly Betty and Grey's Anatomy without feeling lazy!

I found that I could knit on planes, in the car, and while I was talking on the phone. How wonderful to multitask for such a lovely purpose!

The pattern is simple--simple enough for me. I have never completed any knitting project more complicated than a scarf. The pattern is knit 3 purl 3, casting 72 stitches on size 9 needles-the kind that has a wire in between. We used Lion Brand Homespun yarn and 3 skeins cost about $15. You can cast on any even number that is divisible by 3. The pattern is on www.lionbrand.com. 

I finished the shawl in the knick of time. Now I need to devote every spare moment to getting ready for Christmas. We bought our tree the day after Thanksgiving and it's ready for decorating. Then there's shopping, wrapping and getting everything shipped to my dad's place in the suburbs of Chicago. No time for knitting, but when we start to hunker down in January I'm sure I'll think of someone who needs a shawl full of thoughts and dreams to keep them warm.