Patterns available on my Etsy shop. Proceeds from the sale of this pattern are donated to the New Israel Fund.

Yarns: Uses small amounts of yarn in 22 colors.

I’d planned to create a pattern for an Elijah’s Cup, used during the Passover seder to welcome the prophet heralding the age of peace. But as I researched the background of the cup, I decided to expand the project and “craft” my own seder – to explore the ways in which holiday traditions and meanings are created (and to have another way to delight my youngest niece-let at the seder table – it’s always a challenge to keep children at the seder table given the length of the service and meal).

This knitted seder plate includes the principal symbols of the seder:
* Maror (bitter herbs), representing the pain of slavery (I knitted the top of the root, which we use on our table)
* Charoset, a sweet paste made from dried and/or fresh fruit, nuts and wine, signifying the mortar used by the Israelites in their labor for the Egyptians
* Karpas, another bitter vegetable (typically parsley, as I knitted), the humility of servitude, which is dipped in salt water (slavery’s tears) before being eaten
* a roasted Shankbone – the Pesach (sacrifice) before the 10th plague; and
* a roasted Egg - a symbol of spring by Reform and Conservative Jews (or a symbol of mourning for the loss of the Temple in Jerusalem by traditional Jews.

Blogged here.