Knitting and Solitude

This past Saturday, we had our Shawl Ministry meeting and one of the participants is not a knitter or crocheter, but enjoys coming to the meeting and helping with the fringe. I took one of the books off of the library bookshelf that looked to be the right size for the length of fringe I wanted. The book Nouwen's The Only Necessary Thing : Living a Prayerful Life compiled and edited by Wendy Wilson Greer. It's interesting how you can pick up a book for utilitarian reasons and have it catch your attention for another reason. Our St. Sophia Chapter of Daughters of the King was having a meeting soon after we met and the person that was to do the devotion had spent the night with a friend in the hospital and was unable to attend the meeting. So I quickly thumbed through it - Nouwen's good - surely there was something in there that would be appropriate for a devotional. The book flipped open to Solitude and Community and Nouwen writes the importance and essentialness of solitude in community and how i can bring us closer to each other. I think of friendships and how they can deepen to a point where you can be in the same room and not feel compelled to fill the silence with the spoken word.
Knitting affords us that same opportunity for solitude in our lives, where we can center ourselves while our hands may be in motion, our minds can be centered in a quiet way, listening to God for direction and guidance, or just being in a world that doesn't have much quiet, and doesn't offer value to the times when we are doing "nothing". However, knitters know the peace the yarn and needles and the creation of something woven with a single strand of yarn can weave, and they know the cohesiveness that those tools can bring to a community of fellow knitters.
So the making of fringe brought Nouwen's book to me - it's a collection of his finest writings and I have basked in his thoughts. I am putting the reading on hold for a bit to let some of this sink in to a deeper level, and to also give some thought and prayer to this book as a study. If any of you have read any of Nouwen's work, I would be interested in hearing your thoughts.
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On another note, the felted bag is completed and ready to be delivered to its rightful owner. Naomi had bought yarn years ago from Lubbock, Texas and one of our church bazaars. I threw in a little of my yarn and some of Betty's yarn I have to give it some personality of us - not that Naomi needs any enhancement of her personality - anyway, here is a picture of the completed purse.

Previous posts show the same purse in its prefelted state. Still working on the Sampler shawl from Folk Shawls. I will try and post a picture tomorrow on it.