"An inner hush enveloped me when I picked up my knitting bag for the first time in many years," says Susan Jorgensen. "Time slowed. I felt calmed and soothed." Once engaged, she felt ineffably connected with the Divine. It’s a feeling she never wants to let go.

Jorgensen began knitting at age 8 at her grandmother’s knee. The craft’s simplicity still appeals to her. Now a grandmotherly type herself, she enjoys parlaying her profession as a spiritual director into a part-time shawl ministry, sharing the blessing with hundreds of givers and recipients. She’s co-author with Susan Izard of Knitting into the Mystery: A Guide to the Shawl Knitting Ministry.

In her knitting circles and retreats, "Every story you hear about how someone learned to knit, or a garment somebody knit for them, touches your heart," she says. It’s a universal artistry that connects us with our roots, our ancestors, and each other. "It takes us to a place of wordless connection."

Threads of hope and healing weave through each shawl as ministering hands knit unconditional love into every stitch. Messages range from comfort to celebration.

Though highly tactical, contemplative knitting can open a window to look at what’s real. Jorgensen likens it to an expression of one’s inner life, "seeing where your stitches are, and where they are not."

Accessing one’s spiritual life may come through a repeated mantra like peace-joy-love as a knitter works the yarn in a slide-in, loop-over, pull-through movement. In meditation, a wandering mind can be refocused simply by returning to the pattern. Jorgensen relates that when she found herself knitting with a broken arm in a cast, she knew her body "was being knit together in the process."

Whatever one’s need, in sickness or in health, in want or in wealth, draping such a gift over another’s shoulders wraps us in warmth, envelops us in love, and honors the gift that we are.

For information on the Shawl Ministry founded by Janet Bristow and Vicky Galo, visit www.ShawlMinistry.com.

BY S. ALISON CHABONAIS