My mother knit and did counted cross-stitch and read and accomplished all those things with love. She was a wonderful woman, and I miss her terribly. While I read The Unlikely Yarn of the Dragon Lady by Sharon J. Mondragón, one of her characters, Margaret, needed to be in control much like I do. Margaret regretted not talking with her mother more before she died. Although I talked with Mom up until she couldn’t any longer, I wish I had spent more time with her during the sweet period before she went Home.
All of the women in the Heavenly Hugs Prayer Shawl Ministry have secret wishes they hope will come true. They’ve knitted for ages in the Prayer Chapel at their church. A failing church slated to be closed. The pastor, in a stroke of brilliance (or a nudge from above), suggests they take their knitting to the local mall while a volunteer paints the chapel they’d been knitting in.
From a quiet group not doing anything but knitting and praying, they become an active group that still knits and prays. They also become involved in the lives of the people who work in the mall and see them knitting. Will this activity help them surmount their own problems and concerns? Come and meet Margaret and Fran and Jane and Rose and the others. Maybe you’ll even learn to knit.
Sharon Mondragón wrote a delightful set of characters and a delightful story in which to display them. You’ll love them as much as I’ve grown to. Five stars.
Sharon J. Mondragón herself facilitates a prayer shawl ministry for a group near her home in Midlothian, Texas. She also teaches knitting. She has lived every writer’s dream of having her work made into a motion picture after it earned recognition from the Saturday Evening Post Great American Fiction Contest and ACFW.
Kregel Publications gave me a copy of The Unlikely Yarn but did not obligate me in any way to write a review. Should you purchase this book (and I hope you will) from any of the links in this blog post, I may receive a small commission as an Amazon associate.