Prayer Shawl Cards: Free, Printable & Customizable

Make your gift of a prayer shawl or cloth even more personal with these free printable and customizable prayer shawl cards

In one sense, a gift of a hat, a scarf, a prayer shawl, or any other item we knit for charity speaks for itself. The fact that we’ve put in our time, effort, love, and yarn toward making something for someone else says so much.

However, there are times when a few well-chosen words pinned to an item knitted for charity can make all the difference.

This is particularly true when we’re knitting a comfort item — that is, something not necessarily meant to address a physical need, but rather an emotional one.

The Ultimate Comfort Items – Prayer Shawls & Cloths

A prayer shawl, sometimes referred to as a “comfort shawl,” is the quintessential example of a comfort item.

Prayer shawls are one of the most common ways to knit for charity all over the country. If you attend a church, it’s possible that it has a prayer shawl ministry. If not, you may know of a nearby charity or group that is devoted to knitting prayer shawls.

Some folks also call these “comfort shawls.”

The idea of a prayer/comfort shawl is right in the name. This is simply a handmade gift to let someone know that they are in your thoughts and prayers, and that you would like to give them comfort.

The shawl is frequently given to someone going through a tough time — a personal loss, financial difficulty, depression, illness, and so on.

You can find a collection of free knitting patterns for shawls here.

Prayer cloths are a similar concept; I explained it in more detail here, but to summarize, it’s a smaller version of the prayer shawl.

Prayer cloths are far more portable than prayer shawls. Also, they often make better gifts for gentlemen (many of whom don’t seem to take to shawls, for some reason…) as well as children.

You can find two free knitting patterns for prayer cloths in my eBooklet “Quick Charity Knitting Wins.” When you subscribe to my Knitting Nuggets Newsletter here, you can get it right away!

The Purpose of Prayer Shawl/Cloth Cards 

So let’s circle back to what I said earlier about a few well-chosen words making all the difference.

The gift of a prayer/comfort shawl or cloth does have meaning on its own, of course. However, when the knitter (or crocheter) lets the recipient know how much care, prayers, blessings, and/or thoughts went into the shawl or cloth’s creation, the recipient will fully know that this was a labor of love.

This is where a sweet, simple card can make such a difference.

But sometimes, we’re simply at a loss for words! For knitters, it is often so much easier to express ourselves through fiber than with words.

Fortunately, I have a solution for you! I’ve designed a lovely set of printable and customizable cards. You’ll see a sample image below.

As you can see, you can alter this card to fit the way you would like to word your comfort. Some people prefer not to make reference to prayers or blessings. Others like to offer thoughts, prayers, and/or blessings.

At the end, you can replace “Your Name” with your name. Or you can erase the text that reads “Your Name” and sign the card, if you want to give it an even more personal touch.

To access this set of cards, click the image above to be taken to the download page!

I hope you find these printable prayer shawl/cloth cards to be just the touch you need to express your desire to offer comfort and love to your recipients!