Spiritual Knitting

People always talk about how knitting is a spiritual and meditative practice. How many people out there are actually knitting spirituality into their projects, though?

Both of these projects were for a friend from church. The first one was just meant to be a ribbed cowl. However, she requested I add some Coptic crosses onto the body, so I had to figure out how to embroider on ribbing. The challenge here is that ribbing is designed to stretch whereas embroidery needs to remain static. I ended up discovering that the chain stitch can actually stretch with the ribbing and preserve the intended design.

The second cowl was actually a birthday gift for her father-in-law. He is a full deacon and therefore, in the Coptic church, can really only wear black. My friend liked the first cowl so much that she requested one for him too. This time though, I knew exactly what to do. Some ribbing around a stockinette body would have created a great cowl and a fantastic frame to embroider the crosses on.

Doing any sort of embroidery on ribbing is tricky. The grid and stitches are not very even, and I had to account for the fact that this fabric is going to stretch.
Fortunately, the chain stitch was my saving grace. It stretches and shrinks with the fabric while preserving the intended design.
There are three crosses on this cowl and they all look a little different. I like the uniqueness though.
These images are of the work in progress because I initially was not planning on posting the final projects. At the I made these, I was still very nervous about sharing my beliefs.
Notice how the stockinette body of this cowl creates a perfect grid for embroidering on.
The Coptic cross is unique in that the four arms are all the same length. The ends are decorated with a classic trefoil design. There is a rich theology behind all pieces of Coptic art.
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