Knitting can't feed the hungry, fight crime, or stop global warming, but a hand-knit sweater warms a cold child. A cozy scarf eases a homeless night. A prayer shawl wraps a worried patient in peace. Through inspiring stories and gentle encouragement, Knit with Love reveals the many ways you can bring joy and comfort to those around you.

Knitting blesses the knitter in so many ways. It affords quiet time, the satisfaction that comes with a challenge met and a project finished, and a creative passion to share with other knitters. As knitting and the fiber arts enjoy a renaissance in popular culture, more and more women are discovering these personal benefits. But knitting also offers knitters a way to bless those around them with handmade gifts that come straight from the heart.

With inspiring stories, Knit with Love encourages and motivates knitters to see their own potential to bring joy and comfort to themselves and those around them. Whether someone has just picked up knitting needles for the first time or is a lifelong knitter, she will discover new ways to share her beautiful creations with others--and the peace that the rhythm of knitting brings to her own life.

Lisa Bogart is a knitter, weaver, and scrapbooker with a degree in Fine Arts from Colorado State University. She works at Piedmont Yarn & Apparel in Oakland, California, and belongs to three knitting circles. She lives in California.

"So many lovely people all doing a wide variety of things to make the world a better place (p. 133). This quotation by Susan Mock, one of the people described by Lisa Bogart, summarizes the message of Bogart's new book, Knit with Love. This buffet of knitting information provides a little of everything about knitting: devotions, a history of knitting in the United States, the health benefits of knitting, and stories of numerous people who knit "to make the world a better place." It also offers some knitting tips, a simple project or two, advice on starting a knitting group, and Bogart's favorite websites and books.

The idea of knitting to make the world a better place may seem exaggerated until you read about how knitters have helped our soldiers in wars since our founding. Also, many people knit a variety of projects to help others: chemo caps, knitting a river, baby items for sick babies and crisis pregnancy centers, cloths to clean petroleum off wildlife during oil spills, and more.

Bogart's warm style make you want to curl up by the fire with your knitting needles, favorite yarn, and a hot mug of cocoa to knit something special for someone. She emphasizes the relationships that knitting helps build whether in a barracks in Iraq or a prison in the United States or a local yarn shop. This is a book that you can comfortably read a chapter, knit a few rows, and return to later.

In the second chapter Bogart offers several devotions ranging from Deuteronomy 11:18-19 through Hebrews 11:1. One of the devotions uses a version that sounded odd to me and made it hard to place the Scripture, but most are very recognizable.

One chapter deals with the bonds that develop through knitting, another with health benefits, another with projects to help others. Bogart describes individuals of all ages who have helped others by knitting from their own homes or by starting a group dedicated to helping others. One church knits scarves for the homeless in their area. A Catholic school teaches youngsters to knit in some special classes to give scarves and hats to needy youngsters. Someone started a prison ministry that taught the women to knit and paid them for the items that were then sold to benefit others.

Knit with Love is a pleasant book with a friendly, intimate style. It would make a nice read for the knitters in your life. It also might give you ideas of how your family, your recently widowed grandmother, or your Sunday school class might help others while relieving stress and making the world a better and more colorful place. Debbie W. Wilson, www.ChristianBookPreviews.com

http://www.christianbook.com/with-love-stories-warm-knitters-heart/lisa-bogart/9780800719708/pd/719708

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