Tag: fiber arts

An American Knitter in Europe

Cynthia Coe

When traveling in Europe, one of my favorite excursions is to find a yarn shop and buy a few skeins to make a shawl or scarf while traveling. I always find luscious yarns (and all wool!!!), meet interesting people, and have an experience I’ll remember as one of the highlights of my trip.

I follow the map on my phone down a quiet street in the South of France. I’ve already bought lots of yarn in Paris, but I’ve managed to break a set of circular knitting needles during my travels. Darn, I’ll have to find another knitting shop in Nice!

The quiet street is located just a few blocks from the Mediterranean, and there are only a few local people around, running errands on foot or otherwise going about their business. I find the tiny knitting store, but it’s closed. Peering in at the brightly colored yarns inside, I know it’s the place for me. I make a pharmacie run for wonderful French cosmetics and wait for the owner to return.

A French Knitting Shop

“Bonjour, Madame!”

The knit shop is open, and a handsome Frenchman of a certain age is seated behind a small wooden counter. Several other customers have squeezed inside the shop as well. I get in line and eye some skeins as blue as the Mediterranean, and all wool as well.

“Bonjour, Monsieur,” I reply in greeting, as I’ve been taught to do upon entering any place of business in France.

When the customers in front of me have finished purchasing their yarn and needles, I repeat my greeting and explain in my bad French that I need 3.5 mm needles, circular if he has them.

This is NOT the big box store experience we have in the United States! There are no racks of needles and knitting supplies lining the walls, available in large quantities to pluck off and head to the self-checkout.

Instead, the handsome Frenchman pulls out a drawer underneath his counter, frowns, rummages around a bit, and finally comes up with two sets of circular needles in the size I need. I select the bamboo ones…and point to the skeins of Mediterranean blue yarn as well.

After profuse “mercis” for bailing me out of a knitting emergency, I pay, tuck the needles and yarn in my tote bag, bid the handsome shopkeeper “au revoir,” and I’m on my way.

Shopping the Old-Fashioned Way

Walking back to my hotel, I realize that this was how all shopping used to be, long ago. You didn’t “browse” or do “retail therapy” – shopping as recreation. If you needed something, you went to a specific shop and told the proprietor exactly what you needed to buy. You would have formally greeted the shopkeeper, and he (probably not a she) would greet you formally in return. You would buy something made of natural materials, and you would certainly not stuff your purchases in a plastic bag.

Knitting Memories from Europe

I’ve truly enjoyed all my excursions to buy yarn and knitting supplies in Europe. The yarns are always much higher quality than those on offer in big box craft stores in the U.S., and there’s always that personal interaction you rarely get in the big box stores.

In Montreal, I got to buy small-batch wool from local sheep – and with the name of the sheep attached to the label! In Spain, I got to buy the famous Merino yarns, actually made in the Merino region of Spain and at much more affordable prices than what we pay in America. In Portugal, I got to buy local Portuguese yarn as well, and the shawl I made while touring the country has become one of my favorite souvenirs ever.

The next time you travel, check out a local yarn shop! Even if you don’t speak the language, you’ll meet a local shopkeeper who truly knows their products. You’ll get high-quality yarn, and maybe you’ll make your own precious souvenir to help you remember a wonderful little excursion.

Bon Voyage and Happy Knitting,
Cindy

I’ve started a new travel blog, aimed at women in their “next chapter” after retirement, child-rearing, or other big life changes we all eventually face. Please check it out at www.travels-with-cindy.com.

Do you love knitting and travel? Travel through time through my fictional histories of how Knitting got to Europe and the Americas by reading my books, Knitting Through Time and Knitting Under the Orange Trees, both available in paperback and on Kindle, included in Kindle Unlimited.

Cynthia Coe is the author of The Prayer Shawl Chronicles and its sequel, The Knitting Guild of All Saints. Her newest novels, Knitting Through Time and Knitting Under the Orange Trees, explore how knitting spread through Europe and on to the Americas. Follow her here on the blog, at http://www.cynthiacoe.com, or on her Amazon Author Page.

Knitting with Love: The Quiet Power of Prayer Shawls

Knitting with Love: The Quiet Power of Prayer Shawls

Cynthia Coe

There’s something deeply comforting about a handmade shawl. The weight of it. The warmth. The sense that someone, somewhere, took the time to create something just for you.

For many knitters, that feeling is exactly why we pick up our needles in the first place—not just to make something beautiful, but to make something meaningful.

Rooted in Tradition, Alive Today

The idea of special, meaningful cloths goes back centuries.

In Jewish tradition, the tallit is a prayer shawl used in worship. In Christian communities, fabric has long been used in healing rituals, blessings, and acts of care. Across cultures, textiles have carried meaning far beyond their practical use.

Today’s prayer shawls continue that tradition in a very accessible way. They show up in hospitals, at baptisms, during grief, in times of celebration, and in quiet moments of personal reflection.

They are simple—and yet deeply powerful.

Knitting as a Spiritual Practice

There’s a reason so many people find peace in knitting. It gives your hands something to do while your mind settles. It creates space to think, to process, or simply to be still.

When you knit a shawl with intention, that experience deepens.

You might:

  • Hold someone in your thoughts as you knit
  • Say a quiet prayer at the beginning or end of a session
  • Choose colors that reflect hope, healing, or love
  • Simply focus on creating something good in the world

There’s no “right way” to do it.

That’s part of the beauty.

Designing Something Personal

One of the most meaningful aspects of prayer shawls is how personal they can be. From simple beginner patterns to more detailed designs, each shawl can reflect the person making it—and the person receiving it.

Color, texture, size, and pattern all become part of the story. Even the simplest garter stitch shawl can carry deep meaning when it’s made with care.

A Gift That Matters

In a world full of quick texts and overnight shipping, a handmade shawl stands apart.

It says:

  • I thought of you
  • I spent time on this
  • You matter

For someone going through illness, loss, or uncertainty, that kind of gift can mean more than we often realize. And for the knitter, it offers something just as valuable—a sense of purpose, a symbol of love and of care. 

A Gentle Resource for Your Journey

For those who feel drawn to this work, A Prayer Shawl Handbook offers a thoughtful and practical guide to getting started. It explores the history and meaning of prayer shawls, provides simple patterns for knitters and crocheters, and offers ideas for creating shawls with intention—whether for personal use, gifts, or church ministries. It’s a quiet companion for anyone who wants to knit not just with skill, but with love.

Cynthia Coe is the author of The Prayer Shawl Chronicles and its sequel, The Knitting Guild of All Saints. Her newest novels, Knitting Through Time and Knitting Under the Orange Trees, explore how knitting spread through Europe and on to the Americas. Follow her here on the blog, at http://www.cynthiacoe.com, or on her Amazon Author Page.

How Knitting Traveled to the Americas (and Inspired My New Novel)

How Knitting Traveled to the Americas (and Inspired My New Novel)

Cynthia Coe

Knitting didn’t arrive in the Americas by accident—it traveled hand to hand, carried by women across oceans and generations.

As knitters, we know that techniques don’t live in books alone. They live in muscle memory, in watching someone else’s hands, in doing the same small motions over and over until they become part of us. Long before knitting patterns were printed or standardized, knitting moved through the world the same way people did—by necessity, memory, and care.

That history is what inspired my newest historical novel, Knitting Under the Orange Trees.

The story imagines how knitting traveled from Europe to the Americas during the sixteenth century—not through official records or trade documents, but through the daily lives of women. Women who packed little more than what they could carry. Women who brought practical skills with them: how to make clothing, how to keep others warm, how to create something familiar in an unfamiliar place.

In Knitting Under the Orange Trees, knitting is not a hobby. It is essential work. It happens in homes, convents, on ships, and in new settlements where warmth and clothing could mean survival. The novel explores how textile knowledge—quiet, often overlooked—helped shape early communities in the New World.

If you’ve read Knitting Through Time, this novel continues that world and deepens its history. If you haven’t, you can enter the series here, just as you would a new project: by picking up the needles and beginning.

Knitting has always been more than yarn and stitches. It is a way women have cared for one another, preserved knowledge, and carried home with them—no matter how far they traveled.

🧶✨ Knitting Under the Orange Trees is now available in paperback and e-book editions at this link. It is also included in Kindle Unlimited.

You can explore Knitting Under the Orange Trees and the full Knitting Through Time series at this link.  ✨🧶

I hope you enjoy this book! I truly LOVED writing it!

Blessings, Cindy

Cynthia Coe is an author, blogger, and avid knitter. Her books are available in paperback and e-reader edition on Amazon.com. Visit her Author page and follow this blog for more info and news.

The History in Our Knitting Hands

The History in Our Knitting Hands

Cynthia Coe

Knitting isn’t just a craft — it’s a way of holding onto history, one stitch at a time.

When we think of “history,” our minds usually go to big things: wars, presidents, protests, politics. But I’ve always been drawn to another kind of history — the quiet kind. The kind that unfolds not in the headlines, but in our homes, in our habits, and in our hands.

This is the history of daily life — what historians sometimes call “social history.” It’s the way people cook, gather, raise children, earn a living, and yes, knit. These are the changes that truly shape how we live, and I believe they matter just as much (if not more) than what’s in the textbooks.

Take the pandemic. Almost overnight, we changed how we shop, work, and interact. We got used to takeout and tracked packages, remote work and video calls. But we also learned to treasure quiet, in-person moments — time with loved ones, and time with ourselves.

As a knitter, I couldn’t help but notice something else: people returned to crafts. Knitting, crocheting, sewing — all the “granny crafts” came back into fashion. These slow, thoughtful traditions gave us something tangible to hold onto in a world that felt unsteady.

That’s no accident. In every time of upheaval, people turn to the familiar. And handcrafts like knitting carry history with them — not the kind of history with dates and battles, but the kind that teaches patience, resilience, and care.

We’ve seen this before. When factories replaced handwork, when knitting mills replaced home spinners, when the internet replaced handwritten letters — we gained speed, but we lost something too. We lost the rhythm of slow work. The connection between hands and heart. The quiet pride of making something, stitch by stitch.

The history I care about most lives in everyday changes like these.
That’s why I write about them, and why I keep knitting through them.

So if you’re someone who’s ever picked up a pair of needles and felt like you were joining a long line of women (and men) who made beauty out of necessity — you’re not just crafting. You’re preserving a kind of history. And that’s something worth holding onto.

Cynthia Coe is the author of The Prayer Shawl Chronicles, a series of fictional stories woven together by the theme of human connections made through prayer shawls and the craft of knitting. Her newest book is her first historical novel, Knitting Through Time: Stories of How We Learned to Knit. Learn more by visiting her Author Page at this link. 

As an Amazon Associate and Author, I provide links to products (including books I have written) and earn a very small fee if you click on the links and buy something. There is no additional charge to you!

Patterns in Nature, Patterns in Fiber Arts

Patterns in Nature, Patterns in Fiber Arts

Cynthia Coe

Why do some knitting patterns just “look right”? Where could you find inspiration for designing your next fiber arts project?

Look no further than Mother Nature herself! Certain patterns are found time and time again in nature. Intuitively, we are already hard-wired and attuned to recognizing these patterns. So if you find yourself stumped for design ideas or a pattern that’s sure to please, here are design elements found in nature and their knitting or other fiber arts equivalents.

The Wave: This pattern lends itself easily to the inherently linear nature of knitting. Most knitting patterns are done in rows, and rows are akin to long, thin waves. These waves can have crests and dips, interruptions and smooth sections – just like many knitting or crochet rows.  If you’re knitting in any kind of garter stitch pattern or with other repetitive lines, you’ve got your wave.

A pattern in nature related to the Wave includes the Meander pattern. Think a pathway, river, or snake. Though our finished products in knitting and other fiber arts usually no longer meander, our yarns certainly meander from our skeins to our needles as we’re working!

The Burst: Think of the iconic photograph of a drop of milk making a round, crown shaped pattern. Or the shape of a daisy or other flowers or plants “bursting” with a central point. This circular pattern is a bit trickier for knitters. Making a circular pattern with double pointed needles can be fiddly and, in my opinion, is a rather advanced skill. But if you want to knit to impress, this would be your “wow” pattern. This pattern is much easier in crochet, and many crochet patterns feature increasing numbers of stitches starting from a small space. 

The Spiral pattern is similar to the Burst pattern. Both are round patterns, with the spiral meandering around and around instead of making a round burst from a central point. Spirals are more often found in crochet patterns than knitting. 

Fractals: Think branches of a tree or other plant, fractals branch out from a central line, just as tree limbs or leaves branch out from a stem or trunk. We see a lot of fractals in embroidery and other fiber arts using decorative stitches. Many more advanced knitting stitches do feature fractals that mimic plant leaves. These are sure to give your design a nod to nature.

Cells and Bubbles: Cells are the building block of nature, so cell-like designs are often found in all finds of knitting, crochet, and other fiber arts. They may take the form of holes or spaces in our stitches, or we may make block-like patterns in our colorwork or stitching. Think moss stitch in knitting or even basketweave. Bubbles are similar to cell patterns and can give a pattern the feel of fun and joy. 

These patterns are all around us – in our own bodies, in plants, and in the heavens. We know these patterns; we recognize these patterns. Take a look at your favorite fiber arts patterns some time. What do you recognize from the natural world?

Enjoy Your Fiber Arts Designing…and Time in Nature! Cindy

Cynthia Coe is the author of The Prayer Shawl Chronicles, a collection of interrelated short stories about knitters and those they meet through knitting and sharing prayer shawls. 

Be sure to check out my newly published A Prayer Shawl Handbook: Inspiration and Resources for Your Prayer Shawl Ministry, now available in paperback and e-book editions and included in Kindle Unlimited.