Free-ish prayer weaving project
I love this project because it gave us a chance to talk about prayer informally, and for me to introduce the idea of prayer as a tool for weaving meaning through our lives. We talked about family and individual prayer practices and experiences with and questions about prayer. I shared the perspective that as we examine our lives through a consistant prayer practice, we can see threads running through our experiences that we might not otherwise see. Sometimes the answers to prayers are epiphanies or dramatic moments, but more often than that, God draws our awareness to patterns in our life. Maybe we see opportunities to repair relationships or we revisit our frustrations or impatience and are able to understand ourselves better over time. When we sit with God, we can loop back through our experiences and use them to make faithful choices in the future. God is with us in each day - each stitch - of our lives, and though we take life day by day, when we zoom out we can see what each day means in relation to the others
This project uses materials that folks in your congregation probably have lying around and will be happy to share with you. All you need are:
CDs - used or blank, with or without labels
Yarn in different colors - scraps are great. Different weights and textures are fine too.
You can find video tutorials on youtube, but the general principle is that you create a loom on the CDs by looping a piece of yarn through the center hole on the CD an odd number of times (9 or 11 is recommended) with fairly even spacing. Tie it off and trim the excess.
Here, the white yarn that goes around the outside of the CD creates the structure for the woven pattern. (Fun fact: it’s called the warp)
Cut long pieces of yarn (this is the weft) and tie one to a warp string right at the center hole of the CD. Weave the yarn around the warp strings, alternating passing the yarn over and under them. When you have as much of that color as you want or you run out of string, tie another piece of yarn onto the end of the first one with a double knot and continue with the next color. Continue the pattern until you have a design you like and then tie off the yarn on the back of the CD.
Ta-da!
For a remote-friendly version of this, most families will have old CDs laying around that kids can use. You can mail or deliver yarn, or teach them how to turn old T-shirts into yard. Make the project over video chat.
