Handcrafts throughout history have often been fashioned with the aid of prayer, one prayer for each bead or each stitch, while keeping good thoughts to enhance the spiritual purpose of the object. It is no accident that some of the finest lace in Europe was fashioned in convents; like the counting of the rosary, the motions of needlework are singularly well suited to the practice of contemplation.

Susan Gordon Lydon, The Knitting Sutra