Monthly Archives: September 2010

Deb’s house – September 23, 2010

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The Castoffs met at Deb’s house on a cool fall day.  We enjoyed cookies, crackers with dip and a crisp white wine (or tea for some).  Deb’s Yorkie, Izzy, entertained us by careening over the furniture and sniffing our yarn bags.  She liked Michele a lot.

I think Izzy needs a tiny little knitted coat

Deb is working on a hat.  Love the self-striping colors and the yarn is so soft.  I didn’t get a photo of the scarf that Deb finished for her daughter, but she added multcolored strands of fringe from Leslie’s stash.  Turned out very well.  I’m sure her daughter will use it a lot in North Carolina winters.

Love these colors

Leslie is making a rug for her guest bathroom that matches the bold colors of the bath and bedroom.  She is knitting blocks that she’ll sew together and the pattern is similar to the banded washcloth pattern that we all know so well.

Happy not to be knitting 'thick and thin' scarves

Mary was showing off the polar bear scarf again.  Show-off.  Still hasn’t given the poor mammal any eyes.  C’mon Mary, let there be eyes.  She is also knitting a baby hat in vibrant green.

Sure wish the polar bear could see this darling hat...

Kerrie joined us and showed us some hot pink flowers that she knitted for Mary’s pink and white baby hat that Mary finished last week.  Hopefully, we’ll see the finished product, with flowers, next week at Julie’s house.  The yarn that she used was fleece – going to be so cozy on that little head.

Linda was with us knitting socks.  I begged for a simple sock pattern and she said that she’d let me have one like hers and like the socks that Carol was knitting last week at Mary’s house.

That's Linda in the dark knitting a sock. Sorry about the picture quality!

I was knitting a sock also – with a ‘magic loop’ technique.  This is a sock that I started several months ago and put aside in mild disgust because I didn’t like the way it was turning out.  I was kind of in a blue funk over my green chevron scarf.  I finished it but completely botched the grafting on the two halves of the scarf.  I put it away to think about it and pulled out the sock.  Finishing something is always a problem for me.   I’ll be better next week.

Speaking of, we’ll be at Julie’s house next week.  I’ll leave you with a quote from Stephanie Pearl-McPhee’s book “At Knit’s End: Meditations for women who knit too much” – “Knitting is a human activity.  It’s okay if it looks like a human did it.”  Whew.  Mine looks like a humanoid did it.

Mary’s house – Saturday, September 19, 2010

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The Castoffs made the long trek down to Wood’s Bay to Mary’s house on a rainy Saturday.  Although we couldn’t sit on the deck (too cold!), we enjoyed the beautiful view from Mary’s living room.  Mary served us some great tasting food – cold cuts with tortillas and pesto, fruit salad and a garden fresh salad with oil from Italy (thanks to Mary’s daughter Larissa who lives there).  We all topped it off with brownies and ice cream.  Thanks, Mary!  We felt well-feasted.

Looked great and tasted better!

Sometimes I think I describe the food more than the knitting at our meetings.  Speaking of excellent things, Mary served a few of us a great wine (with lime wedges) that we’ve had before.  Wine of the week?  New Age!

Refreshing wine

We are such a diverse group.   I feel very lucky to be a part of these women.  So much fun!  Several of us have taken the big leap to SOCKS.  Now, socks are not the easiest project if you’ve never tackled double-pointed needles.  Yes, I know that there are other methods for knitting socks – teeny circular needles (which look very cool and which I’d like to try) and longer circular needles (the ‘magic loop’ method).  Double-pointed needles, however, are the traditional way to sockdom.  Carol has graduated to sockdom and we were thrilled to see her first finished sock.  Carol was pretty thrilled, too.

SOCK! SOCK! SOCK!

Another Castoff who is really branching out is Deb – finally finished with her scarf.  Yay!  She started on a beautiful hat and we all love the yarn.

Can't wait to see the completed project!

Deb came for lunch, dashed out to go to a wedding, dashed back to join us for a little knitting and talk.  Thank goodness the wedding was close to Mary’s house.

Marylane brought her finished needlepoint picture and we were all very impressed.  Next summer when her sister Joan returns from Arizona, Joan’s husband Jeff is going to make a frame for the needlepoint.

Which way is up? Whichever way you want!

Marylane also brought her gorgeous sweater that she started, but she didn’t work on it here – too much distraction.  We get that, don’t we, Castoffs?  Instead she worked on a hat for a library fundraiser basket raffle.

Ambitious, beautiful sweater project

Speaking of ambitious sweater projects, Francy is knitting a top-down sweater for her son embellished with a three-color design that she made up as she went.  Wow.  You are the diva, Francy.

You are the MAN...uh, WOMAN, Francy!

Mary, once a self-described ‘knitwit’ (her words, not mine – well, most of the time) has really come on strong.  She showed us the ubiquitous polar bear scarf that is, really, nearly finished.  The poor bear finally has a nose and claws.  Can eyes be far away?  We suggested a tiny trail of red yarn streaming from his little mouth, but Mary wasn’t impressed.

If he could only see, you'd be in trouble, Mary

Mary also showed us the sweet little fleece baby hat that she finished.  So adorable!

Awwwww!

I glanced over and saw Michele RIPPING yarn off a hat in a most devil-may-care manner.  Don’t worry, she was just taking some off in order to make it longer.  Huh?  Yep.  It is so liberating to rip out, isn’t it Michele?

OUT, damned yarn, OUT

I brought my chevron scarf.  As of this posting, it is all knitted and I only have to graft the two ends together to complete it.  Then I might start a hat or finish a sweater that I goofed on in the spring and put away in disgust.  Now that it’s cooler, I will give that sweater another chance.

Ahh, it's good to finish a project and move on

Julie, Julie, Julie is working on her shawl, although she ruefully told us that now the heat is coming on more in her workspace.  Yesterday it was 75 degrees – hardly shawl weather.  Ah, but knowing the workplace (I used to work there), the temperature is notoriously unreliable.  Keep knitting, Jules.

The shawl that may never do its job

We had so much fun – missed Leslie and Joan, of course.  Next week we meet at Deb’s house to felt mittens that Michele has knitted.  Should be a lot of fun and I hope to see you all there!  Until then, keep those needles blazing.  I’ll leave you with the silent version of our meeting – photos of the busy bees.

Mary, Julie and Carol

Linda, Francy and Michele

Michele’s house – September 2, 2010

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The Castoffs met at Michele’s house – a slightly smaller group than usual, but we were joined by Kerrie, our crocheting librarian (the rest of us librarians knit but we love her anyway).  It was a talky bunch this time.  We drank a little tea, ate some awesome oatmeal cookies studded with chocolate chips that Michele made.  So many of us wanted the recipe that we decided to add it to the blog:

Healthy Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
1/4 cup applesauce
2 Tbsp. butter (no substitutes)
1/3 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp. baking soda
3/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
3/4 cup quick-cooking oats
3/4 cup dark chocolate chips or crushed dark chocolate bar
Preheat over to 350 degrees. Beat together applesauce, butter and sugar. Beat in egg and vanilla. In a separate mixing bowl, combine flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Stir flour mixture into first mixture and mix well. Then stir in oats, followed by the chocolate. Place rounded teaspoons-full 2 inches apart on a baking mat on a cookie sheet, or directly on a cookie sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes. Store in an airtight container.
Makes 18 cookies.
They were truly delicious.  Please make this recipe and enjoy!  Thanks to Michele for the recipe and to Mary for sending it to me.
It took a long time for us to finally get some knitting done.  Leslie hasn’t yet decided on a new project, so she was busy looking through all of Michele’s knitting books and magazines.
Hmmm. So many patterns, so little time.
Leslie also regaled us with the tale of the headboard.  Her daughter Sienna (the newlywed) is decorating her house and needed a skinny table, so Leslie repurposed a headboard.  She showed us photos on her phone and I must say it looked fabulous.  Now we all know why Leslie isn’t knitting.  She’s decorating!  She is the queen of finding inexpensive or lightly-used items and turning them into wonderful, chic expressions of her creativity.
Mary needed a visual on the headboard
I know that we were at knitting but nobody was actually knitting here.  Mary brought her knitting but it sat on the floor for most of the meeting.

Lo, the finger of the knitter came from above and said, "Knit."

Kerrie brought her crochet project, but spent most of the time telling us about a wonderful contest that she won.  She is going to Minneapolis – all expenses paid – to a Creative Women conference that sounds fabulous.  I get to stay home and sub for her at the high school, but we are all expecting a full report when she gets back.  It isn’t until October, so we’ll have to wait a while.  In the meanwhile, she pretended to crochet while we all pretended to knit.
Cutie the Crocheter
Joan joined us for her (maybe) last Castoffs meeting.  She and her husband, Jeff, are returning to Arizona in a week or so.  They’ll be HOT down there.  Even though we tried to talk her out of it, I know that they are anxious to get home and see how much stuff they can bring up here next spring when they come back to their new Montana house.  We’ll miss you, Joan!!  Email me a photo of that cute washcloth puppet when it’s finished.
Joan! Don’t go!
Linda joined us late, she’s still emptying boxes in her new condo.  She must be on washcloth 65 by now.  Eh, Linda?  Didn’t get a good photo of it, so you’ll have to take my word.
Next week we’ll be at Leslie’s house.  Some of our wanderers will be back: Marylane from SLC and Dick’s reunion; Francy from seeing her new granddaughter, Grace  (Congratulations, Grandma!  We can’t wait to see pictures!); Carol from opening her new dance studio (Yay, Carol); Deb from…where are you, Deb?; and Julie from taking her son to college (free at last, free at last!).  Unfortunately, I’ll be in Wyoming and will miss the show.  Wahhh!  But I’ll see you all in two weeks.  In the meantime, keep those needles blazing.  I’ll leave you with a quote from Stephanie Pearl-McPhee (The Yarn Harlot) and her book, “At Knit’s End: Meditations for Women Who Knit Too Much.”
“I will remember that no one has ever been killed or maimed by being adventurous with knitting, no matter how pointy the needles.”