We met at Carol’s house on a rainy day.  Of course, rain is forecast for the entire Memorial Day weekend.  As usual.  Nevertheless, the Castoffs took it in stride and shared our knitting projects and plans.  Carol’s kitty was desperate for cuddles and tried to climb on everyone’s lap regardless of the yarn.  Needless to say, no one was very receptive until Francy finally took pity on LK – Little Kitty.

Aww, Little Kitty found a home on Francy’s skirt that she’s knitting for Betsy.

The skirt is pretty cool – it’s a pattern that Michele has used a couple of times and it’ll look great on Betsy.  Love the color.  Love the striped socks and toes, too.

Little skirt – it’ll get bigger.

Francy was concerned that she had goofed on the lacy bottom part, but our resident expert, Michele, wasn’t here.  She had a meeting.  Funny how work can interfere with the important things in life – like knitting.

A closer look at the bottom that wants to curl up. Blocking should take care of that, right?

Carol was still working on her baby towel and protested against any more photos. “I’ve only knit about an INCH since last week.  Don’t take another picture!”  Of course, I did.  Can’t resist taking a photo of Carol who is leaving for Ireland in a week!  Woohoo!  She’s planning to finish the towel on the trip.

Faith and begorrah. She’s leaving for the old country.

Mary’s picking up steam on HER towel for Larissa’s baby.  This one is going to have a chicken head instead of a duck head.  Yep.  We’re surrounding the next generation with farm animals.

Here’s another one almost like the other one. Cluck, cluck.

Now here is Leslie’s farm animal, the soft and cuddly lamb.  He is very adorable and is wearing the sweater she knit him.

Happy grammy.

Francy diverged a little with the bear that she bought in Germany.  She knit a sweater for it using a baby pattern that Leslie had used for her granddaughter, Mira.  So cute!  Grace, Francy’s granddaughter, will love to put all her treasures in it.

This sweater is adorable, Francy!

Leslie has a granddaughter named Grace also, and is knitting – wait for it – fruit cozies.  Yeah, I’d never heard of them either, but she has patterns and everything.  Grace will be taking her lunch to school soon and she can stash her apples and such in cute little cozies.  To keep the fruit warm?  Cool?  Private?  I don’t know.

Pattern and beginning of the Apple Cozy.

By the end of our meeting, Leslie had a partial cozy made.  Carol found an artificial apple to model and ‘voila!’ we had a fruit cozy.  Go figure.  I looked up the spelling of cozy online and found out that in Britain it’s spelled ‘cosy’ but in America it’s spelled ‘cozy.’  We are definitely in America, so cozy it is!  It’s amazing what you find out at the Castoffs meetings.

By golly, it’s an apple cozy!

Linda has started her search for a mother-of-the-groom dress for her son’s wedding this summer.  So far, the search has turned up nada – zilch – zero.  But she brought us a brochure from one of the stores that she shopped in and we all got a good laugh out of the photos.  Holy catfish, preacher!  What will you do when you see this coming down the aisle?

Good god, it’s a Mother-of-the-hooker Dress. Yeah, Linda. Go Baby, GO!

Linda will continue her search, I hope.

Julie and Deb were sitting by the fireplace with their toes sticking out.  The calendar says it’s nearly June, but the weather outside feels more like March.  But hey, we’re gonna wear our sandals anyway!  Or go barefoot.

Frostbite, anyone?

Julie was starting a cotton rug for the bathroom in a pretty blue.  That sounds like a great idea.  I should do that.  Oh yeah.  This was supposed to be the month of finishing projects, wasn’t it?

Hey, I need a new rug, Jules!

Instead of finishing a project or two, I started a linen-stitch cowl using merino sock yarn.  It called to me and I couldn’t say no.  And anyway, the month isn’t over yet. I’ve got three days, haven’t I?

My cowl. Mindless knitting and when I’m finished, I don’t have to assemble anything!

I don’t know where Joan and Marylane were, but we sure missed them.  I hope to see them next week at Deb’s house.  Bon Voyage, Carol!  Have fun in Ireland and drink a Guiness for each of us…but not all at the same time.  Until next time, Castoffs, keep those needles blazing and take this opportunity in the rainy season to learn the backstroke.

The Castoffs met at Joan’s house.  Yay!  Joan’s back for the summer!  Mary was doubly glad because she wasn’t around the last two times we met at Joan’s.  Joan made cute little cupcakes with lemon icing and gave us pretzels with a wonderful cream cheese dip.  Yummy!

Great snacks, Joan! Thanks.

It was good to see the sisters back together again.  They look more and more alike…or maybe it’s just because whenever they find a good deal in shirts, they buy a second one for the other sis.  Anyway, they are pretty darn cute.

Sisters…or twins?

I have to apologize for the late posting of the blog.  I’ve been busier than a one-armed paperhanger.  Banquets and movie dates and visits from relatives and book group.  Whew.  We have so much fun at Castoffs meetings that I have good intentions to rush back home and blog, blog, blog.  Sadly, life gets in the way but here I am now!

Leslie finished and stuffed her monkey.  Stuff, stuff, stuff. Stuff, stuff, stuff.  Stuff your monkey!  Stuff your MONkey!  Doesn’t that sound like a seventies disco song?  Does to me.  I digress.  The monkey turned out so cute.  He has a little red tongue protruding from his cute little monkey-face.  Leslie had him lovingly cupped in her hands.  Awwww.

Soft monkey for Mira.

Leslie was beginning a new project – a very mysterious one that I can’t remember – so I got a fuzzy photo of the yarn and needle.  Maybe next time I’ll be able to tell what it is.  Leslie and I decided that this wasn’t the ideal venue for casting on.  It’s hard to count while everyone is talking over and around you.  “Thirteen, fourteen, fifty-one, fifty-two…Damn!”

It’s a popsicle stick and a sticky bun! No, it’s Leslie’s new project. Don’t know what it is, but it’s golden.

I was busily starting a new project even though I vowed to make May my ‘Finish all my ongoing projects month’.  Liar, liar, pants on fire.  I had this yarn, see, calling my name from the stash, see, and I just had to answer.  No one took a photo of it because it looked a lot like Leslie’s – formless and unnameable.  Next week, I promise.  What it is – it’s a linen stitch cowl in superwash merino sock yarn.  Pretty.

Julie and Mary were both working on socks.  I got a twofer picture – Mary’s sock and Julie’s face.

Whose sock?

Mary told us all about Baby Moses’ birth and cuteness and I remembered that I promised to publish his favorite toy.

A darling baby and his darling whale.

Julie and Linda were busily knitting and eating and drinking and generally being Castoffs.  Linda is still knitting her fern-pattern scarf that is so pretty.  Julie’s knitting a sock.  What else can I say?  Cute sock?

Knit, purl, yo, k2, etc. Castoffs at work!

Deb was nearly finished with her lilac vest.  You can really see that it’s a vest now with a v-neck, cables and a top and bottom.  I think this is the most exciting part of a project – when the garment becomes recognizable.

A real live vest!

Carol is knitting the baby hoodie towel for her granddaughter.  Carol is a little behind, but she’s planning to take it with her on her upcoming trip to Ireland!  She’ll have plenty of time to knit on the way over and back.  Let’s hope she does better than I did on my trip to Scotland last year.  I carried a small project over there and drove it around Scotland and didn’t knit a stitch.  The yarn appreciated the trip, however, and wants to go back.  I wouldn’t mind either.

Dreaming of Ireland and of being a grandma again.

We meet at Carol’s house – THE house – this week.  For a while I worried that I wouldn’t get the blog posted before it was time for our next meeting, but I guess I pulled it off once again.  Until we meet in a couple of days, Castoffs, keep those needles blazing and enjoy the rain.  Just think how good it is for your skin!  Yeah, right.

The Castoffs were met by Leslie giving all of us a disclaimer:  “I HAVE BEEN EXPOSED TO WHOOPING COUGH.  APPROACH AT YOUR OWN RISK!”

Well, a little infectious disease doesn’t stop women who knit.  We armed ourselves with needles and went on in.  Besides, Leslie baked cheesecake.  Of course, in true Leslie fashion, there was a disclaimer for the cheesecake: “I AM SO DISAPPOINTED IN MY CHEESECAKE.  IT CAVED IN THE MIDDLE AND USUALLY LOOKS BETTER THAN THIS.”  This is our reaction to the disclaimer:

We didn’t come to look, we came to eat.

Pertussis has made its presence known in the valley.  Michele was exposed too and has a cold on top of that, so she stayed home.  Leslie told her she could come and sit on the deck beside a window and yell through it to us, but she declined.  That would have been fun, Michele.  Carol piped up “I’ve been exposed too!  Sooooo, should I be sitting here exposed to someone who has been exposed when I’ve been exposed?”

Huh?

Both of them were supposed to go to Missoula for Mother’s Day to visit their children, but Leslie decided not to expose her pregnant daughter – secondhand – and Carol wasn’t sure if she should go and expose her grandson Waylon.  This was too much for me, so I just got a glass of wine and knitted.  Whoop!  Whoop!

Carol is still working on the baby hoodie-towel for grandson Waylon’s brother who will be born in the summer.

Carol got her pertussis booster anyway.

Leslie knit a little lamb for Mira – her granddaughter who will be born this summer but she didn’t have stuffing for it.  I did, however, and promised to bring it over.  Darling little lamb.

Flat and in pieces, but not for long!

Francy is back from her trip to Germany!  Welcome home, Francy.  She bought a little bear backpack in a secondhand store in Munich for Grace, her granddaughter.  The idea was to cut off the old sweater and knit a new one.  Just so happened that Leslie’s sweater that she knit for Mira fit the bear perfectly.  Wow.  Francy is going to use that pattern and add different Pooh-inspired buttons.

Old sweater.

New sweater – or at least the idea for the new sweater.

Leslie also knit one of the cutest baby sweaters that I had seen in a while.  It was knit with sock yarn in a sideways pattern – going from one sleeve edge to the other – a pattern that Michele had used for a baby gift a few years ago.  I love this pattern and I want to knit one for myself.  The idea of knitting a garment from side to side really intrigues me.

Sideways baby sweater.

Joan is back for the summer from Arizona!  It’s so good to see her and to see the sisters together again.  She and Marylane already had a busy day – book group, buying flowers for their yards, knitting group – Joan even volunteered to host knitting next week.  Jeeze, how did we get along without you for so long, Joan?

Sisters, sisters, there were never such devoted sisters…

We asked Joan to show us what she knitted over the winter so she blew the dust off the old MSU scarf and held it out.  Hmmm.  Joan.  It doesn’t look a whole lot longer than it did in September…We’re glad to see you anyway.  Maybe this is the year you learn to purl???

It really isn’t cold enough to knit in Arizona anyway.

Marylane is working on her multi-colored vest.  I think it’s going to be great.  She thought about putting it all on one needle, but couldn’t figure out the logistics.  Another great theory though.

Keeping it straight.

My scarf that I’m knitting for my friend Michelle is getting near the end…I think.  It’s about my height now but I want it to be between six and seven feet long.  I’ll check with Michelle to be sure but I think that’s what we agreed on.  I’ve enjoyed knitting it, but I just bought some NORO to make a slip-stitch cowl and I want to start.

Getting longer, Michelle!

Linda was working on her lace scarf so diligently that I had to get her photo.  She looks like the perfect, content knitter, doesn’t she?  And her scarf matches the upholstery.

All she needs is a cup of tea, a cat and a fireplace. And a basket of yarn and a cottage. And another pattern to start on when she finishes this project. And…

The warm weather really seems to be here – for a while – so get out and enjoy it, Castoffs.  I got a new bike for my birthday and I’ve been riding.  Marylane and I will have to take both our new bikes out.  Maybe other Castoffs will join us?

Next time we meet at Joan’s house.  Hope it’s nice enough to sit on her deck!  Until then, keep those needles blazing, Castoffs and have a sunny week!

The Castoffs assembled at my house on a rainy, overcast day – chilly, too!  We were glad to be together though.  Mary got the call and rushed down to Denver to see her brand-new grandson, Moses.  She sent a couple of very cute pictures, one with the beaming grandma.  Congratulations, Mary!  You get to do it all over again in July when Larissa has her daughter!

I served some yummy cheese and crackers, strawberries and – the best yet – frosted animal cookies.  You know the ones with the little colored dots of candy.  YUM!  And of course, wine.

Brie and animal cookies. Yum.

Francy is still on her German adventure, but the rest of us trickled in.  Joan will be back with us next week.  Yay!  It will be so good to see her again.  Welcome home to Montana, Joan!    We can’t wait to see what you knitted over the winter! No pressure.

I must apologize ahead of time for the very few photos that I took.  I guess the excitement of hosting drove everything out of my head.  I didn’t even start to knit until the meeting was nearly over.  Just can’t do that many things at one time.

Michele is nearly finished with her vest and it is beautiful.  She only has a few inches to go and then will sew the two pieces together.   I think her next project will be baby-related.

Michele – almost ready to seam the two pieces.

Leslie finished her kickbag.  I like saying that – kickbag, kickbag, kickbag.  There, I got it out of my system.  Her granddaughter Mira will love kicking freely.

Imagine a darling baby kicking in this bag.

Marylane is knitting an awesome vest with all of her leftover wool.  It’s turning out beautifully.  She’s knitting all three pieces simultaneously so that the striping will turn out the same – coming and going.  I love it.

Such beautiful colors, Marylane!

I finished my red afghan that I knitted for Jonathan, grandson of my sis-in-law Sue.  I’ll mail it off this week.  I dragged out my basket of unfinished projects to show Leslie.  My green vest, the Alligator, my blue vest and my friend Michelle’s scarf.  Yikes.  It’s a catalog of my life.  I move through the days leaving a trail of unfinished stuff behind me.  Well, it won’t last forever.  I’ll finish these things before I’ll let myself start a new project.  I have a LOT of new ideas to knit, so May is going to be the official Finishing Month.  I’ll keep you posted.

Carol was working on her baby hoodie and telling us all about her root canal and the insurance woes that she is facing.  We hear ya, Carol.  We all added a few of our own.  Julie had advice about insurance and then rushed out to go get a massage.  Julie is leaving to visit her mom this week and needed a massage to help her get through the plane ride.   Carol, the hoodie is adorable.  The other stuff – well, we can’t help you but we can listen and nod in sympathy.

Carol – tooth and all.

Linda was working on her green lace scarf and Deb was looking at her vest.  Can’t remember if she actually knitted anything.  We were all so focused on talking and eating that the time slipped away quickly.  Or maybe it was all that wine I drank…

Nevertheless, it was a fun time.  Next week we’ll be at Leslie’s house where, I hear, there will be CHEESECAKE!  No pressure, Les.  Until then, enjoy the summertime weather that is FINALLY here and keep those needles blazing.  It’s the lovely month of May, Castoffs.