In the recent past, knitting and stitching groups have become
popular, but last week Magis Ireland (a Jesuit youth group) took the
concept one step further and introduced a spiritual aspect to this
increasingly popular activity. While some other knitting groups have been associated with gossip, Noelle Fitzpatrick wanted to have a positive knitting evening and introduce people to ‘fun ways of prayer’.
When she advertised the Knit and Knatter group’s first meeting on Facebook she did not expect to receive 200 ‘likes’.
The group that turned up was much smaller but began with the usual cuppa and then a reflection with the Ignatius prayer “The Examen of Consciousness”.
This involved participants in reflecting on the encounters of their day and what they might be grateful for, but also at the more difficult aspects of the day and where God was moving or calling in these.
Then they picked up the needles and Noelle Fitzpatrick invited them “to knit out of that and pick up on any colours or combination of colours, or whatever design they wanted to give expression to the day that was.”
They knitted in silence and with chat, and near the end put down needles and shared about what they had knitted and what it was an expression of.
“Maybe something of their day and where God might have been in it through what they had knit. Some people knitted actual things and some just knit a small piece like a scarf with various colours,” she told CatholicIreland.net
The group was made up of all ladies but that is not to say there would not be guys involved in the future.
“I have no doubt we will run another one as a standalone or as part of a retreat. We found that people just started talking randomly, but not so randomly, but around faith and deeper things. I was surprised that the level of sharing was not superficial. People chat easily when they are knitting - it is something that can allow people to just get into it,” said Noelle Fitzpatrick, programme manager, Magis Ireland which she said it is a Latin word that St Ignatius used with many first companions. “It means ‘more’ in qualitative terms as in deeper and more authentic.”
Magis Ireland is the Jesuit organisation that provides a wide range of faith and justice activities for young adults aged 18-35. It appears that the ‘fun’ evenings will continue with a ‘Bake Well’ evening in May which is advertised as “finding God in the dough of daily life!”
See: www.magisireland.com