We met on another hot day at Leslie’s house. Inside was full of conversation crossing and recrossing, but it was cool because Leslie served us several great flavors of sherbert all together in bowls. The flavors blended wonderfully and were very refreshing. Add tea or wine and fig newtons and you couldn’t have a better treat.

Our lovely hostess.

Yum, tasty and colorful!

Francy’s daughter Betsy and granddaughter Grace joined us. We were all so surprised to see how much Grace had changed in just one year. Great to see you both, Betsy! We’re looking forward to your jewelry show next week.

Grace is enjoying her sherbert!

Lisa dropped by with her granddaughter Greta who is growing so fast! It’s hard to believe just how quickly the little ones grow. Grace had fun playing with Greta. Next year the playing will be a little more even.

Babyland. Adorable.

Marylane and Joan joined us for a little while but have been inundated with company lately so they had to rush away. Marylane did have time for a cuddle with Greta, though. No surprise, is it? She loves Greta and so do we.

Joan, Marylane with Greta, Francy and Grace.

With all the baby commotion, I was surprised to see that Julie and Linda had actually taken out their knitting. I took my scarf out too, just as a pretense that I might really knit.  We all decided that it’s just too damn hot! No fun touching wool in 80+ weather, is it? No, it isn’t. That doesn’t mean that I can’t take a few photos though, just to make you think it’s still a knitting group.

I have knit a few more inches on my entre-lac scarf – mostly during the British Open.

I’ll probably knit more while the Olympics are on. Seems like knitting makes the time pass more quickly and pleasantly. Also keeps me from snacking so much! (Diet tip!)

Julie showed me the socks that she’s been slowly working on. One is finished and one is nearly finished. Perhaps one day she’ll be wearing them. What do you think, Jules?

One sock, two sock, both are blue sock.

Linda is still working on her fern patterned scarf but discovered a boo-boo. It’s hardly noticeable though, so she’s going to keep on going instead of ripping out six inches of intricate pattern.  Don’t blame her one bit!

Linda’s pointing out the mistake. Hardly noticeable.

Mary found a darling pattern for a baby sweater and bought yarn for two – one for her grandson Moses and one for her granddaughter Aurora. Little bear ears make this sweater really cute.

Blue for Moses – Pink for Aurora.

We’ve narrowed our road trip down to two dates, so I’ll be polling everyone via email for the best time for us to trek up to Eureka. EUREKA! Sorry, couldn’t resist.

Next time we meet at Carol’s house – ahem, that’s Mrs. Sullivan now. Until then, Castoffs, keep those needles blazing but try not to catch your yarn on fire.

On a VERY hot day, the Castoffs met on Julie’s patio, sat in the shade of big umbrellas and, uh, cast off all notion of knitting. Not a stitch was stitched. Not a knit was knit. Not a purl was purled.  Instead we sat inert, rousing ourselves only to sip wine and eat Julie’s deicious homemade ice cream. Oh. My. God.  It was excellent!

Best ice cream I’ve ever had, Julie.

Francy came riding in on her new hobby horse. Not really, but she could’ve. She showed off the hobby horse that she made for her granddaughter, Grace, who will be staying at her house (with Francy’s daughter Betsy, of course) for FOUR WEEKS.  Francy is over the moon to have them for such a nice long visit. The horse turned out so cute and, although Francy didn’t say, I’m sure that Grandpa Harry made the stick.

Grace will love this stick horse!

Francy was soliciting advice about how to make the reins. Finally Deb showed up and told her. I guess none of the Castoffs ride much.

Linda is excited about her son’s visit this week and, out of respect, we are cancelling Mojito Monday next week. That’s quite a sacrifice, ya know. We’re all moms, so we get it.

Deb and Linda in the shade of the giant umbrella.

Carol came by for a little while to update us on her son, Duncan’s, new job in Flagstaff. Carol is so happy to know that he will be closer than Alaska. Not to mention a lot warmer!  Carol will be able to see her granddaughter Mabel and the new baby who is due in a couple of months. Carol had just slammed her finger in a door (OUCH) so she was carrying around an icebag. She looks happy though, doesn’t she? Well, she IS a newlywed.

Julie is admiring Carol’s modelling skill in spite of her finger injury.

I took out my entre-lac scarf that I am slowly knitting. I love the way Noro yarn blends their colors. It’s going to look great when it’s finished. I might have to buy a new coat to match it! My husband didn’t seem too surprised when I told him my plan.

Beautiful colors and I love the pattern!

After a little more lackidaisical chatter about summer plans, hikes and family stuff, we decided it was just too damn hot to continue on. Mary and I were sitting on a rocking chaise and as the sun crept closer to me on one side, I kept inching closer to Mary on the other. We decided it was too hot for me to crawl up onto her lap, so we called it an afternoon.

Next week we meet at Leslie’s house where we look forward to seeing photos of her new granddaughter, Mira. Maybe it’ll be cooler then…right.  Until then, Castoffs, stay out of the blazing heat and at least think about using those needles.

The Castoffs met on a VERY hot day at Linda’s cool condo. Mary and I came in together as Linda was adjusting the shades on her living room window to keep out the heat, and to block the blinding whiteness of her sunbathing neighbor. He was beached on his patio and wiped the sweat continuously. Ugh. Yeah, let’s adjust that shade.

Linda served us beautiful cheeses with baguette slices, chips and salsa and candy-coated sunflower seeds.  Everything was yummy.

Ah, summer treats.

Linda also served one of my favorite red wines – Simply Naked Unoaked Reds. She also had lemonade and iced tea, but I made a beeline for the wine.

Pretty!

Francy brought her daughter-in-law Heidi who was the only one who knitted. Go figure. She thought we were there to knit! Ha. Well, we do knit too. I pulled my knitting out of the bag, at least. Heidi is knitting a tunic-type sweater from a pattern that she got online from a company named quince & co. She loves the patterns from this company and found this particular one on Ravalry.

Not real easy to see, but it was beautiful.

The stitch is a row of rib knitting followed by straight knit stitches. It gives the appearance of an interrupted, twisted rib stitch. Very interesting.

Deb is still having an issue with her lavender sweater. She wants to have something around the neck, but isn’t sure if she wants the i-cord that the pattern calls for. We got a view of it and gave our 2 cents’ worth, of course.

Halloo! I’m a model!

Wonderful detail on this pattern!

To prove that I brought knitting, I pulled it out for a photo. This is an entre-lac pattern scarf using Noro yarn.  I love the pattern but the yarn is drying out my hands. At least it will be warm in the winter. I really do like this interesting pattern using short rows.

Entre-lac pattern with Noro.

Linda showed us her gorgeous mother-of-the-groom dress that she’ll wear at her son’s wedding in August. It is stunning – silvery taupe with a lace overblouse. We loved it, Linda!

We loved the mom-of-the-groom dress.

I looked around at one point and nobody was attempting to knit.  It’s just too damn hot to knit, I guess. I have to say that I knit a lot more in winter when I’m held captive inside by the cold weather. Summers in Kalispell are too short and wonderful to stay in and knit. Of course, taking the knitting outside is an option and one that we’ll explore when we discuss a Castoffs Road Trip.  Next time that will be on our agenda.

Not much knitting going on here, Castoffs!

We want to send a big Congratulations to Carol who married her sweetie, Mark. We got a card together for them with some surprises inside. Best wishes to you both, Carol and Mark!

Thanks, Francy, for being our artistic guru. It’s very pretty.

Next time we’ll meet at Julie’s house, hopefully on her new patio. We heard all about laying down the pavers, so now we need to see it. In the meantime, Castoffs, keep those needles blazing and enjoy the summer!

Summer is finally here and, boy, are we happy to see the sunshine. We gathered at Marylane’s house and admired her beautiful garden and yard. Marylane and her husband Dick are gardeners extraordinaire!

Marylane’s big garden.

The rest of Marylane’s back yard and part of the deck.

Marylane picked some pretty lettuce from her garden and arranged it around a bowl of tabouleh for some lettuce wraps. Topped it off with hummus and pita triangles. Yummy!

A summery treat.

Michele and Leslie are knitting the same cowl in different colors, but both are stunning. They are using a lace pattern with a beaded lace inset. So beautiful. Michele knitted hers as a gift for her sister. I know she’ll love it.

The lovely soft cowl.

A better look at the beaded portion of the cowl.

Leslie is knitting her cowl as a gift for her daughter, who is about to deliver her first child at any moment! Wow. Leslie thought at first that she would knit the scarf while Sienna is in labor, but after thinking about the stress involved with waiting for her new granddaughter, Leslie isn’t so sure she wants to be knitting an intricate beaded pattern just then. Can’t say that I blame her.

This shows the beaded part of Leslie’s cowl.

Another view of Leslie’s cowl.

Leslie is using her grandmother’s teeny tiny crochet hook to put the beads on the yarn. It is really VERY small. But it’s better than stringing all of them on the yarn before you start, which is the only way I knew about. I might have to try that method.

Michele was knitting a bi-colored sweater. She ordered the yarn online from Knitpicks (I think) and wasn’t as pleased with the trim color as she had been when she viewed it on the website. We all liked it.

Michele’s sweater.

I think she thought the edging yarn would be more burgundy and less brown, but I think these colors will do nicely.

Michele’s friend Betsy was visiting from Oregon, so she brought her along. Betsy had joined us a couple of years ago while visiting Michele and brought along the same project that she was working on then. She isn’t a knitter ordinarily, but she was knitting away on her poncho. Good to see you again, Betsy!

Betsy showing Marylane her poncho-in-progress.

Francy’s husband Harry joined us for a while, but when Lisa appeared, Harry went to her house to talk to Lisa’s husband. Guess Harry just wasn’t as enthralled with our knitting projects as we are! That’s okay because we were all interested in seeing little Greta Grace. Especially Marylane. When Lisa’s daughter-in-law asked what day Lisa wanted to babysit, Lisa thought of the Castoffs and said Thursday. Thanks, Lisa. We need a baby boost.

It’s GRETA!

We talked about the chair, of course. Julie brought an interesting pattern for the seat that is a pattern of circular I-cords joined in a spiral. Julie took some yarn and is going to knit a practice gauge for us to see next time. We were all excited about that kind of seat because it looked more substantial and less stretchy than the chevron seat that we liked last week. It’ll all come together eventually and the fun will be in the planning.

I decided to use some Noro yarn that I had in my stash to learn a new technique. The pattern is an entre-lac design that uses short rows to make a series of diagonal squares. It’s an interesting design and once I mastered the pattern, I like knitting the interlocking rows. Noro makes the scarf more interesting because it is a self-striping wool. Sometimes it’s good to try something new.

My Noro Entre-lac scarf.

Next week we meet at Linda’s house. Sounds like it’s going to be a hot, hot week in the 90’s so stay cool, Castoffs. Hope those blazing needles don’t set your yarn on fire!

A small group of us met out at Francy’s house on the lake. Linda and I drove out together and Marylane and Joan brought Lisa and little Greta Grace, who made a happy addition. It was a beautiful day, sunny and warm, and we couldn’t have been in a more idyllic setting.

Ashley Lake and Francy’s dock from the upper deck. Gorgeous!

Francy made enchiladas and served them with chips, dip, veggie plate and some of the best mustard/horseradish dip that I’ve had in a while. We ate and drank well. Thank you, Francy! We sat in the sun to eat until we got too warm, then moved around the house to the shade. It was a rather lazy sort of day, following the sun which has been such a rarity for us this spring and summer.

Joan contemplating the meaning of pretzels.

Wonderful food!

We look stunned by the bright sunshine!

As soon as Marylane finished eating, she snatched up Greta to get her Grandma fix. What a beautiful baby Greta is! I have to admit that we were all pretty taken with her smiles.

Marylane and Greta communing in the great outdoors.

Lisa and her darling granddaughter.

You might have noticed that I haven’t mentioned knitting once. Well…there’s a good reason for that – nobody knit a stitch! We did, however, pull out some of the yarn that Marylane brought to compare colors for the yarnbomb chair that we’re planning for the ‘Loud at the Library’ fundraiser in the spring of 2013. We’ll get a lot more done on the chair-planning when more of us are together.

A whole lot of yarn. Marylane sorted it by color and type.

We threw ideas around about the chair. Should we make the seat a double thickness? Should we ask Francy’s daughter to make beads to embellish the bottom rung? Should we only use wool? Of course, we had few answers to our questions, but it was fun to sit on Francy’s deck with the summer stretching before us when the possibilities seem endless. It was a wonderful afternoon and we missed our sisters.

Next week we meet at Marylane’s house where, hopefully, we can sit on HER deck and look at her beautiful garden and make more plans for the summer. Until then, Castoffs, keep those needles blazing (if you can in this wonderful weather – I have a problem staying inside and knitting when the sun shines) and have a great 4th of July!

Aaah! Finally summer.