Slogging Away and Prayer

I have been slogging away on the Icelandic Triangle Shawl from the book Folk Shawls. I have been pleasantly surprised by my project monogamy on this one. It is taking a long time, but I am nearly finished. Of course the 30 rows I have left might take me a whole 'nother week, as there are a LOT of stitches on my needles right now. One row takes almost half an hour to finish and that keeps getting longer, but like I said I am still interested.. and I'm almost done. I think what is keeping my interest is that I want this shawl - so warm and light. Sorry no pictures - right now it is just a large gray blob on my needles.

That's it for knitting content - I haven't been working on anything else lately except a sock I've been working on at lunch (I only get 1/2 hr - so not a lot of progress there either.) As for spinning - nothing new there. Just have one full bobbin of the grey shetland. But the guild meeting is coming up and I will be spinning for a few hours the Saturday after next.

And that just leaves weaving. I've been suddenly curious about cut-pile (or knotted pile) weaving. Curiously enough - when I type those two entries into Google - I don't come up with much, and nothing in the way of instruction materials. I will ask members of my guild at the meeting. Also, if you are reading this and have any info about this kind of weaving, or where to start, please let me know in the comments. I would really appreciate it. :-)

Other Stuff
In my Thursday night Bible study, we got into the first section of the book we are reading. It is really interesting how each of us sees how at various stages in our lives we have been the prodigal son (leaving home and coming back again - both literally and figuratively), the older son (staying and being dutiful), and also the father (welcoming and giving unreservedly.) I see both myself and my younger brother as literlly being the prodigal. We left home rather abruptly, and had our rebellion phase (both against our parents and the Lord) then came back again, to open and welcoming arms. My middle brother did that, too, but not to the extent I did, and has been "home" for a few more years than myself.

Putting yourself in the position of the father is much more difficult, and I certainly haven't gotten there yet. The one who has lost everything, so can do no more than give unreservedly. That is the place to strive for.

The Lord has been doing wonderful things in my spiritual life these past few weeks. Prayer is a wonderful thing and we cannot do enough of it. I have been shown individuals outside my personal circle that I need to pray for. For instance - I last week a woman who writes a blog I read lost her father. I don't even know this woman, but the pain she was writing about moved me to tears. I prayed right then and there for the Lords comfort to be upon her and her family.

Another instance was just yesterday. I had a knitting lesson scheduled with a lady that had recently had abdominal surgery. She was unable to make it due to complications and wasn't feeling well. It was laid on my heart to pray for her health. Since I have been teaching knitting, I haven't felt the urge, or really even thought about it, to pray for these ladies. Most of them I don't even see again, or really find out anything about thier personal lives beyond knitting. But I was so blessed this month to meet a lady who has been battling stage 4 cancer for 7 years!! I couldn't believe it when I found out, but there she was at my class every week with a beautiful smile on her face, so cheerful and joyful! She goes to chemo every week, and has lost her hair 4 times. May the Lord bless her and her husband immensely. By just being the way she was ministered to me! Thank you, Lord, for blessing me in this wonderful way!!