A Royal(ty) Adventure

Knitting Lessons in India

Last week I started a new adventure; teaching knitting at a women's shelter.  This is a shelter for battered women and children.  The more I learned through orientation, the more I realized how perfect knitting was for them.  It uses both sides of the brain so you can do some deep thinking.  It's stress relieving (mostly).  You gain a sense of creative accomplishment and a safe place to succeed.  And sometimes, these women just want to do something that they're not criticized or put down for.

This is the result of a dream I had and extreme couponing.  The couponing part happened because I looked for a place to donate some of my stockpile and the shelter was perfect.  I've donated a few times and the last time I saw yarn on their wish list.  Meanwhile, I had a dream one night of India and working with women there.  I felt it was a call back to ministering with women, something I hadn't done for awhile.  And so I thought, why not ask if the women at the shelter would like knitting lessons?

You may be wondering what this has to do with book writing, and here's how.  I had to come up with a beginner's project that they could do in one class (I may only seem them once).  To learn to cast on, knit, purl and bind off all in less than two hours.  I also thought that these women were going through a tough time and I didn't have the heart to make them work with the donated scratchy acrylic yarn at the shelter.  So I put together kits with nice needles and yarns and a pattern.  This was put into project bags which I had gotten in India from the women whom I worked with.

With the materials and project bags, the two worlds connected for me.  I had always wondered if there was a ministry for me at "home" like I had in India.  And here was something similar.

The supplies rang up at the yarn shop for about the same amount that my book royalties were for the previous month.  It was like it was meant to be.

India.  Knitting.  Writing.  All tied up neatly in a bag made from a sari.

I love it when a plan comes together, even though it may take years to happen.