A small group of Castoffs met at Leslie’s house. Marylane and Francy are out of town for Christmas, but everyone else dropped by for at least a while. Mary brought her grandson Moses, who seemed a little uncertain of all the loud women. He settled down though and played happily at Mary’s feet.

Every year, we wait in eager anticipation to see the Charlie Brown extravaganza that is Leslie’s Christmas Tree. Leslie’s trees are kinda… out there, and this one was no exception. Now, don’t get me wrong – we all really like her trees – they’re just a sprocket past normal. This year Leslie’s tree was wonderful, albeit not quite the tree seen in Miracle on 34th Street.

It does look slightly Middle-eastern.

Leslie displayed the three stockings that she knit for her daughter’s family, and she also had a charming Western Christmas scene that belonged to her mom. Definitely looking like Christmas at Leslie’s house. It will be perfect when little Mira gets there on Sunday.

Moses really liked the lights on the tree, too. He stared and stared – maybe he’d never seen such a wondrous tree before. Well, at seven months old, he’s probably never seen more than two Christmas trees anyway.  This tree may set the season in his little impressionable mind. Leslie, you’re molding small brains to a bigger vision of Christmas! Yay!

Moses is such a cutie – and he loves his grandma so much!

Linda brought a basket of pretty yarns that she’s using to experiment for circles that will adorn the Chair. Since I forgot to bring the Chair with me – my bad – we just talked about different patterns and colors. We’ll get down to business about decisions for our project after Christmas.

Pretty jewel tones in Linda’s basket.

I knew that we probably wouldn’t be knitting too much, so I didn’t drag my afghan to Leslie’s house. Instead, I brought the blue vest that I STILL haven’t sewn together. My New Year’s resolution is to finally finish a few projects that have been hanging around my house. I love to knit SO MUCH. So much, that I avoid doing the little niggling finish work, like sewing the knit pieces together, sewing on buttons, felting, etc. You know – all the things that actually make a finished product. Well – this is my year to catch up with all that unfinished knitting.

My vest ONLY needs to be sewn together. And a crocheted edging added. And blocked. All the boring stuff.

Michele stopped by very briefly, but long enough for us to admire her finished mittens. The pattern she used makes a much more fitted mitten than the basic pattern I’ve used. Hers has definite left and right hands. My next pair of mittens will be like Michele’s. I tried them on and they felt great.

I love these mittens. They’d make a great stash project.

It was good to see Deb and Julie who came by in the midst of the excitement of the season. Deb’s son was just accepted into med school AND got engaged! Congratulations! Deb will have a wedding to go to this summer. Her other son is planning to do his student teaching here in Kalispell. Busy, busy. Julie’s kids are home for Christmas – Terra and her husband from Texas and Nate from Bozeman. Nate’s girlfriend just got a plum job offer as a nurse in a hospital’s oncology department. Good news abounds for Deb’s and Julie’s families.

I wish all the Castoffs and their families a very Merry Christmas and a wonder-filled 2013! We will not meet next week (Christmas week) but we’ll be together on Jan. 3 at Michele’s house. As I’m writing this, we have fresh snow on the ground and brilliant sunshine turning the snow to diamonds. Enjoy the warmth of the season, Castoffs, and I’ll see you all next year.

Merry Christmas to all!

We’re in the gray days of December in between rain and snow, but the Castoffs met at my house and were very sunny. We all have the Christmas spirit, working on gifts and thinking about the design for our Chair project (although it will probably take a back seat until after Christmas).

I served cheese and crackers, chips with a cranberry/chipotle chli dip, and those little frosted animal cookies with sprinkles. I had a bottle of Bogle Red and Linda came in with three partial bottles of various white wine. We always eat and drink well at our knitting meetings.

It’s always fun to knit and eat. Or is that eat and knit?

We have all been busy knitting gifts for Christmas presents. I am 1 for 2. I finished felted slippers for my sister-in-law but I’m not even close to finishing the afghan for my brother-in-law. I texted my Sis and asked if he knew that I was planning an afghan for him. No, she said. Whew! I said. The pressure’s off for another month or two. It is an easy pattern to knit in the evening.

Little ballerina slippers. Aren’t they cute?

Afghan to-be.

Leslie is finishing Mira’s Christmas stocking – adding pom-poms – so I got a better photo than the one from last week when I was Brandy Alexander impaired. She’s also making some felted slippers with a knitted flower on the toe. She hasn’t felted the flower yet. I love the colors that Leslie chooses. She has a much more evolved sense of color than I do.

Interesting color combinations. Nothing boring from Leslie.

Michele is knitting some fingerless mittens for her daughter, Erica. I’ve knit this pattern and it’s quick and very pretty with cables and picots. For a last minute gift, it looks like you put much more time and effort into it.

Mitten, mitten, who’s got the mitten? Oh yeah, Michele!

Michele’s also knitting some felted mittens for herself. I think I heard her say that she gave her other ones away. That happens a lot. We knit something that we’d love for ourselves, then we give it away. Oh, well. There’s always another pattern to knit and the pleasure is in the knitting, isn’t it?

Cool – I mean warm – mittens.

Carol is knitting another toy doggie but has only two legs so far. Our lovely hand model, Leslie, offered to show them off and stepped in, literally. I’m sorry that this is fuzzy, but the legs are teeny-tiny and I zoomed in too much. Darling, though! They really look like little doggie feet!

Ruff, ruff!

Mary was back from visiting her kids in Las Vegas. She had a lot of fun spoiling Aurora and she’ll get a chance next week to spoil both grandkids because they will be here during Christmas! Lucky grandma! She crocheted a little reindeer. It was supposed to be brown, but she thought it would be more appropriate in Christmas colors. We agree, Mary.

Not Rudolph, but adorable.

Mary also knit Aurora some little legwarmers with self-striping yarn. It’s amazing to me that yarn can do this. It seems more like magic than something that the yarn just does on its own. The only problem is that the stripes didn’t make the same pattern on both legs. Mary’s going to knit a third legwarmer and, depending on which one it looks like, she’ll have a pair. Weird, eh? The self-striping went a little awry.

Not quite a pair.

We finally got around to talking about the Chair. Linda has been experimenting with a line of circles that will go on the back of the chair. We discussed which size we preferred, chose a different color from our enormous stash and asked Linda to keep up the good work. Linda showed us which size circle will be best and she also showed us her new manicure – with a Christmas theme. Very pretty, Linda.

Nice knitting – nice nails!

Some of us will be in town next week, so we decided to go ahead and meet at Leslie’s house. Thanks, Leslie, for volunteering to host us. Until then, keep the Christmas spirit and keep those needles blazing, Castoffs!

HO!HO!HO! The Castoffs met at Linda’s newly refurbished condo to celebrate Christmas 2012. We all brought gifties to exchange, Linda made Brandy Alexanders, I brought my world-famous Gorgonzola cheeseball and a good time was had by all.

I must say – those Brandy Alexanders made some of us forget to take things away with us when we left. Someone forgot her purse… someone forgot her card with chocolate in it… and… well, I forget what else happened.

“Another Brandy Alexander?”

I must’ve taken this after a Brandy Alexander.

I must apologize to Leslie for the following fuzzy photo. She brought the three stockings – two that she made last year for Sienna and Ty and the one she just finished for Mira – and we loved them! The photo is blurry, but you can see the wonderful colors – so Leslie!

Mira’s stocking is on the far right.

Francy played with the video part of my camera and made a little video that showed all of us eating. That’s it. We were all chewing like cows and listening to Michele tell a story in the background until, halfway through, the sound stopped recording. Now that I can show video on the blog — I’m not sure I want to (!)  unless it’s how to knit a certain stitch, or unless there’s a baby visiting.

The most fun part of the night was our present exchange. We opened presents, took them away from each other, laughed and had a wonderful time. I was having too much fun to take a lot of photos, but I did get some of the gifts.

Here are the presents waiting by the hearth for our greedy little hands.

Looks like Santa’s coming

Some of us opened presents that were snatched away. Some of us begged for our presents to be snatched away.

Headless Santa!

‘Keep calm and carry yarn’ mug.

Knitted bar of soap – good exfoliater!

Cute little gnome.

Here is a photo of all our presents after the exchange. It was so much fun!

The LOOT!

We had to get a group photo, so Francy and I played around until she figured out how to put my camera on a timer. Gee, I really should read that manual, huh? We captured part of the TV that it was resting on, but we all look pretty darn good.

The Castoffs!

We missed Mary who was in Las Vegas playing with granddaughter Aurora and Joan who deserts us for the winter to go back home to Arizona. We all wish you both a Merry Christmas and a wonderful 2013!

We meet at my house next time. I’m badgering Lucky to put up the tree, but no promises. Until then, enjoy the snow and keep those needles blazing, Castoffs!

The Castoffs met at Julie’s house and it was her BIRTHDAY! And she didn’t tell anyone! But she baked her own cake, so WIN-WIN. We loved the cake – chocolate and heart-shaped. Here’s the recipe:

Happy Birthday to YOU, Jules!

Deep Dark Chocolate Cake

Instructions

• · Combine dry ingredients in large mixer bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla. Beat 2 minutes at medium speed. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin). Pour into greased and floured 13″ x 9″ x 2″ pan. Bake at 350 degrees F for 35 to 40 minutes or until cake tester inserted in center comes clean. Cool. (or bake in 2-8″ or 2-9″ pans and bake 30-35 minutes in 350 oven)

Perfectly Chocolate Chocolate Frosting

Ingredients

Instructions

• · 1. Melt butter. Stir in cocoa. 2. Alternately add powdered sugar and milk, beating on medium speed to spreading consistency. Add more milk, if needed. Stir in vanilla. Makes 2 cups frosting.

 We got our new chair! It’s beautiful but we are rethinking how to yarnbomb it. The other chair was in bad shape (finishing was scratched and pitted, etc.) but this one is beautifully finished with unique details. It will take some different types of knitting to showcase the chair itself and not the knitting.

Our beautiful new library chair.

A couple of us are knitting hats. Deb’s is in a blue multi – here is the pattern of what it will look like:

With a little help from her friend.

Mary finished her hat that I mislabeled at the last meeting. It wasn’t for Larissa or a grandchild – it’s for MARY. She wanted a woollen hat so voila! Here it is. Very pretty pattern, Mary.

Great pattern.

Leslie is knitting a Christmas stocking for her granddaughter to match the ones that she made for Mira’s parents a year or two ago. She’s matched the colors really well, considering that some of the yarns she used on the other two has been discontinued.

Very modern Christmas stocking, Leslie.

Marylane is knitting a pair of felted slippers for Luke, her daughter’s boyfriend. Marylane knit some for Kendra last year but she and Luke fight over who wears them. Marylane is taking care of that issue.

They look pretty big now, but they’ll shrink.

Linda is back to her prayer shawl. She has been busy getting her condo repainted and remodeled. I can’t wait until this week when we go there for our Christmas party. Wow – can’t believe that it’s almost Christmas. Guess I should think about gifts and a tree.

Happy that the remodel is nearly over.

Michele wore a big fluffy scarf that she knitted. It’s very fun. She wanted to try to use the leftover yarn for our chair, but it needed to be untangled first.

Hey, Michele! Nice scarf. Looks warm.

As you can see, Castoffs, I’m still trying to get used to the new blog format. I’ll be working out the bugs for a while, but I’ll get better. Until I see you at Linda’s, have a happy week and keep those needles blazing. Ho, ho, ho!