Change in plans

I had alluded earlier to a friend at church who wasn't doing so well. Well, talking to people who have actually managed to visit her (I tried this afternoon, but either she was asleep or had other visitors, she wasn't answering her phone) is that her recovery is about as good as can be expected but that she's kind of lonely and depressed at being stuck in the house (and isn't eating well, which I find makes any kind of feeling-crummy worse).

So I did try to visit her, I will try again tomorrow afternoon. I did leave a message asking her to please call me if she'd like a visit or if she needs me to go pick anything up from the store for her.

Then, this afternoon, I was sitting in my sewing room, working on the current quilt top, and something said to me, "You should knit her a prayer shawl." I hadn't even thought about prayer shawls in a long time but the thought occurred to me. (Sometimes I think those out of the blue "directions" are something more than a random firing in my own brain). So I hunted around to see what I had that I could use (the yarn shop is closed Sundays and Mondays, and I knew I didn't want to go out to the Wal-Mart for "Homespun," even though it's the typical prayer-shawl yarn (because it is easy-care and knits up fast).

I did have a couple skeins of Homespun in a coral color, bought AGES ago with the thought of making one for a friend of my parents (and mine) who was going through some situational stuff. But the situation got a lot better before I even had a chance to start it, so I figured it was probably not so cool to make something that might remind her of that situation. Anyway.

But that color didn't seem right for my friend. Neither did the shaggy green-and-brown yarn I had once bought from Elann for a sweater and then kind of abandoned. Nor the amber-and-green-and-purple eyelashy yarn. And then I found seven skeins of Paton's Mosaic - a long-discontinued yarn but a rare novelty yarn I actually liked - in a purple/red/pink combination. All colors my friend wears, and I thought she'd also like the texture, based on things I have seen her wearing in the past. I had originally bought the yarn to make something for myself, but I felt like I needed it for this, now, and I have lots of other yarn for myself.

So I cast on. I even found my book on making prayer shawls (I remembered it was k3, p3, but the book also gave guidelines on good numbers to cast on for different yarns). So I started working:



This represents about 2 hours of work and one of the seven balls. (The shawl is going to be shorter - probably only about  60" - than I would ideally like, but I only have so much of the yarn. And while I can try steaming and stretching it when it's done, you can't really block acrylic to a bigger size like you can wool)

So I'm throwing aside my other projects for the moment to try to concentrate on this. If I work diligently, I might have it done in 10 days or 2 weeks. (Best case scenario: I get to give it to my friend as a "yay, you're able to come back to church" present. I hope.)