Prayer shawl ministry knits a community together

For Elizabeth Wild, hats are her stress relief. She’s knitted 62 of them since the pandemic started and is on her way to a stack of washcloths and headbands, thanks to the prayer shawl ministry at Christ Church of Longboat Key. Every Friday, Wild and a group of women meet in the fellowship hall to knit and talk for an hour. 

"It's kept my hands busy during the pandemic," Wild said at a recent gathering of the group.  

The ministry started in 2009 when a group of eight women wanted to put their knitting skills to use creating prayer shawl as “substitute hugs” for members of the church who were no longer able to attend services. The prayer shawls are created as the knitter is praying with a pattern of  “knit three, purl three” to represent the Holy Trinity. Repeating the pattern keeps a knitter’s needles on track. 

“It’s very easy to get into prayer mode as you’re knitting because you’re constantly saying, ‘Father, son, Holy Spirit,’” said Holly Finks, who leads the ministry. 

The group keeps a number of shawls in stock so they can promptly deliver on a request for a shawl, Finks said. But not everyone is there to undertake the somewhat complicated knit-purl pattern.

About three years ago, the ministry started knitting hats at the holidays to donate to nonprofits such as Our Daily Bread and Turning Points for warmth and presents in the winter. Even though it’s Florida, the hats come in handy because sometimes the families served by the nonprofits that Christ Church helps may not have heating. 

“The real blessing for the knitters was we got to be present when they got things and we got to get their joy back to us,” Finks said. “The joy just keeps trickling down.” 

The knitting group created 300 hats and scarves throughout 2020, and are already putting their needles to work for next holiday season creating scarves, hats, headbands, towels and washcloths. During the pandemic, knitting has had a boom on and off Longboat Key. Members are continuing to knit in their spare time. 

“It helps pass the time and it helps with anxiety,” Shirley Venkataraman said. 

For a reasonably experienced knitter, a washcloth will be made in just a couple of hours, a scarf in a few hours and a hat in about a week. A prayer shawl, though, can take up to two months, Shirley said. Some devoted knitters may work on one for several hours a day and finish it in a week, but for most it’s an involved project, so most Fridays are spent on scarves and small projects.

“Anytime we create something, we bring it here and drop it off and start something new,” Laura Kim said. 

Laura comes every Friday with her daughters Sidda and Seri Jane, who gladly take pointers from the older knitters around them. Venkataraman and others check Seri Jane’s work on a headband, and she’s delighted to know she’s got the pattern down. The Kim family usually lives in California, but has been on Longboat Key since the pandemic started. Since school doesn’t start until noon Eastern time (9 a.m. Pacific), the girls have a mini-day before their school day, freeing them up to knit. 

“It’s fun to be around people,” Sidda said. “It’s nice to get out of the house and join the community and hear their stories.”