Hello and welcome to Wing and a Prayer Crochet & More. This website has been a dream for quite some time, and this is the maiden post, so to speak. If you are reading this now, more than likely you know some of our story, but just in case this is new to you, please allow me to share a little bit of our history.
In the Spring of 2016, I received a prayer request from one of my cousins who lives in Alto, the tiny East Texas town where my grandfather grew up and where many of my relatives still live. It was for a little girl named A’Nyia Tyra, who had been diagnosed with brain cancer…the same cancer that robbed our family of my uncle, Hank Holcomb, at the age of 50. The prayer request from my cousin also included a little boy, Drew Bowman, a friend of A’Nyia’s who had been diagnosed with leukemia. I immediately shared their names with every prayer chain I was affiliated with and got busy making prayer shawls for both of them. I joined an online group that had been set up to follow their progress and share prayers for their recovery. Fortunately, Drew responded well to his treatments and has had a very good result. A’Nyia, however, did not and she passed away on September 24, 2016, just two days before what would have been her 9th birthday. I grieved for her family and prayed that someday I would be able to do something to keep her memory alive so that others could learn of her bravery and witness her unfailing faith. Her generosity and loving spirit had touched and inspired me, and she had become my hero.
In the Spring of 2017, while recovering from surgery, I decided to make prayer shawls for each of the ladies in my Emmaus Reunion group…the first of this series being for the oldest woman in our group, Gisela Potts. I’m a visual person and have never learned to read standard written crochet patterns. I just chose a lovely skein of Wolltraum yarn in Gisela’s favorite color (purple) and started crocheting. When I had finished it, I posted a photo of the completed shawl on one of my favorite crochet sites and was immediately flooded with more than 900 “Likes” and more than 200 requests for the pattern. I responded that there was no pattern...I just made it up...and that I didn’t know how to make a pattern. It wasn’t long after posting that response that I received a message from someone named Kathy Haire who simply posted, “I do...how can I help?” We became “Friends” on Facebook and on July 17, 2017, our first pattern, “Liebe Gisela” debuted. Not long after that, Kathy and I talked on the phone late one night and I shared the story of A’Nyia’s brave battle against brain cancer and the idea for Wing and a Prayer Crochet was born. Just two months later, in September of 2017, our second pattern, A’Nyia’s Promise was released. In the two years since that humble beginning, we have added 8 more patterns, and 2 additional patterns have been donated by contributing designers. We have been richly blessed.
From the very beginning, Wing and a Prayer Crochet was established to give back…specifically to benefit Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston, where A’Nyia had been treated. At the end of the calendar year, all proceeds from pattern sales go to the hospital for childhood cancer research. We are so proud to have been able to donate $3,300 there in December of 2018 and hopes to top that total in 2019. With your help, we will make that dream a reality.
We have recently changed our name to Wing and a Prayer Crochet & More with the hope and expectation to expand beyond just crochet, to include quilting, cross-stitch, knitting or other handicrafts from like minded designers who wish to give back as well. While patterns from Wing and a Prayer Crochet will continue to donate to Texas Children’s Hospital, individual designers who join will be free to donate their proceeds to the charity of their choice.
It is our mission to give back but not be limited in scope. It is my hopeful prayer that with your help we will grow and become a force for good…to give from the work of our hands for the benefit of others.
God bless you and thank you for your support.
Kat McGrew
Liebe Gisela Prayer Shawl
