Be Thou My Vision

Hello, I’m Liz and I live in Liverpool, Merseyside. I’m a retired Civil Servant who now enjoys a life of crafting, lunching with friends, and taking short breaks in the UK, mostly to Scotland.

I’m a Christian and attend my local Church of England church where I am one of four lay Readers there. This involves assisting with the distribution of the sacraments at our Parish Eucharist; reading the Gospel passage; and occasionally preaching. I am also a trained Spiritual Director within the Liverpool Diocese which means I am authorised to accompany others in their spiritual journey, and guide them in their relationship with God.

My crafting journey began when I was at infant school at the beginning of the 1960s. Knitting was taught in schools in those days! It’s a hobby I’ve been interested in ever since. In the 1980s, I tried learning to spin on a borrowed spinning wheel, after seeing members of our local Guild of Weavers and Spinners give a demonstration at a library in the City Centre. I did enjoy it, but was never able to give the time needed to develop my  new skill.

Fast forward to 2011, and I started a knit and natter group in a shopping centre in Liverpool City Centre when I was a Retail Chaplain there. One of the ladies who came was a skilled crocheter, and I became interested in this craft too, and with her help, I learnt to crochet, and began to enjoy this just as much as knitting. It was probably around this time, when I renewed my interest in spinning again, and I also took an interest in weaving. I attended many workshops, both locally and nationally, to learn more about these fascinating, ancient crafts and I now have my own spinning wheel (you can see part of it in this photo) and a small weaving loom, and now that I’m retired, I have the time to devote to learning and improving my skills.

A few years ago, I read an article in The Readers Association magazine about the spirituality of knitting and it mentioned The Prayer Shawl Ministry http://www.shawlministry.com This ministry really interested me – it simply means that you decide to make a shawl (or other item) especially for someone and as you are making it, you pray for them and keep them in your mind as you work. When I learnt that the lady who had written the article was leading a day’s knitting retreat at Wydale Hall in Yorkshire shortly afterwards, I decided to go. It was a lovely day, there was time to chat with the other retreatants, learn more about the shawl ministry, and also knit! We knitted in silence, praying, meditating, reflecting.  

Ever since then, I have kept up my interest in the ministry and have made several prayer shawls for people I know. I really love being involved in this ministry, and hope in the near future to start a Prayer Shawl group at a local retreat and prayer centre. Watch this space! 

Perhaps all this may have given you a clue as to why I have called my blog ‘The Prayerful Weaver’! Now that I have mastered the basic skills of weaving – and I love it – I am keen to begin using these skills too, in the Shawl Ministry. I can’t weave shawls on my loom yet though, as it’s not wide enough, although I am soon going learn a technique that will allow me to expand the width of my weaving so that I can! In the meantime, I’ve started to weave prayer scarves instead! In fact, you can knit/crochet/weave/quilt absolutely anything at all in a prayerful way, to gift to others.

So, at the start of 2019 I thought I would do a monthly blog about my experiences as a ‘prayerful weaver’. To help me focus a little, I’m going to use the  ‘Favourite Hymns’ calendar I bought for this year. January’s hymn is ‘Be Thou My Vision’. I shall be thinking about the words of this hymn during the month and I’ll be back again at the end of January to share my thoughts….and other reflections.

I hope you will join me then!

Liz