Contemplative Crochet

Cindy Crandall-Frazier is the author of Single Crochet for Beginners and Sock Doll Workshop: 30 Delightful Dolls to Create and Cherish and Contemplative Crochet: A Hands-On Guide for Interlocking Faith & Craft (SkyLight Paths). She is an educator and member of the Religious Society of Friends (Quaker).Linda Skolnik created one of the most popular knitting resources in the world—Patternworks, a high-end knitting mail order company whose catalog has become a knitting bible for the world's most passionate knitters.She is coauthor of The Knitting Way: A Guide to Spiritual Self-Discovery (SkyLight Paths).

• Index of Projects viForeword viiIntroduction ix1 • Roots and Wings: Soaring while Keeping Our Feet on the Ground 12 • Plenty: Finding a Sense of Fullness and Gratitude 153 • The Power of Limits: Having More within a Structure of Less 354 • Meditation Meets Prayer: Two Practices in One 515 • Circles and Cycles: The Art, Meaning, and Use of Mandalas 696 • Prayers on a String: Tools for Intensifying Practice 877 • Pathfinding: Finding Our Way with Crochet 1078 • From Heart to Hand: Sharing Our Craft 1239 • The Creative Spirit: Making Crochet Uniquely Ours 14710 • The Blessings of Hands: An Appreciation of the Hand that Holds the Hook 165A Concluding Letter 183Acknowledgments 184Suggestions for Further Reading 185

For those who love crafts, their connection to personal faith and spirituality is a natural fit. This is a refreshing spiritual book for practitioners of the beautiful craft of crochet, which is too often overshadowed by knitting. Contemplative Crochet author Cindy Crandall-Frazier comes from a Methodist background, and is now a practicing Quaker. Her work here intersperses a narrative examining the interconnectedness of crocheting to personal expression of faith, with short questions for contemplation, and even patterns for relevant projects.The author's stated objective is to demonstrate that work done with our hands is sacred and serves a spiritual purpose both for creator and recipient. She addresses practical topics such as meditation while crocheting and use of prayer beads, as well as broader themes, such as finding one's spiritual and vocational path, and discovering personal creativity within one’s practice of crochet. The included patterns are designed in such a way that even beginning crocheters can partake—one only need know how to create single, double and half-double crochet stitches from a starting chain. The designs are for a diverse group of projects, from a traditional prayer shawl and prayer beads (not a rosary; rather, beads similar to an Eastern Christian chotki), to a small tea pot cozy and motif made of crocheted morning glories.This is a well-written book on an inspirational and timely topic. It would make a thoughtful gift for a crocheter, and a nice addition to one’s spiritual reading list.