We met at Julie’s house and had a great time.  Linda joined us and it was fabulous to see her again!  Welcome home, Linda, even if it is temporary.  She had a lot of new projects to show us including a baby’s hat and another handbag to felt.  The handbag is like the one that Carol felted just before Christmas.  We all loved the funky yarn that rimmed the top.

Cute little curly-top

Not a skirt! A tote to be felted!

I was pretty excited to be wearing my purple sweater that I finished.  It has a wave section that I designed and I must say that I’m very pleased with the way it turned out.

Catch the wave

The Castoffs are all about helping each other when we get in a jam.  Michele is knitting a ‘thick and thin’ scarf for a friend but the thin yarn is giving her fits.  It is slippery silk and it slid right out of it’s skein.  Oops.  The thick yarn is ribbon and it’s no delight either.  Anyway, Michele brought a, uh, wad of silk that needed desperately to be unwound.  After we played with it a little bit and photographed it, Julie stepped up and patiently unwound for the entire time.  Good job, Julie.  Here are photos of the untanglement in progress.

Uh, could I have silkcini with a side of ribbonballs, please?

Oh, just get the scissors, won'tcha?

Is it getting better?

Well, I hate to show you, but this is the photo after an hour and a half of hard winding.  It really is better…really!

Julie can't believe it. It's better, Jules, really!

Another couple of hard winders were busy making order out of chaos across the room.  Mary’s yarn needed a hand from Deb and they wound and wound and wound and finally ended up with a productive outcome.  Now Mary can knit.  It’s a good thing that Mary needed help, because Deb forgot her knitting this morning before she went to work!

Round and round and round...

Voila! The balla!

Well, there’s a lot of prep work before we can actually do the fun stuff!

Leslie has begun a true labor of love.  She is knitting ‘thick and thin’ scarves for all of her daughter’s bridesmaids for the wedding upcoming in August.  The first one is in elemental colors and foretells beautiful knitting to come.

Thick and thin No. 1

It seemed like we were inundated with ‘thick and thin’ scarves this afternoon.  Marylane brought in a scarf with a boo-boo.   It’s a good thing that the stitch is so forgiving in this pattern, and it’s fairly easy to pick up a dropped stitch.  We gave her advice, of course, and the loan of a crochet hook.

I know that darned boo-boo is somewhere here

Marylane brought us a pattern from her sister, Joan, for helmet liners for soldiers overseas in the middle East.  We all took one and, coincidentally, Linda had a different pattern for helmet liners, plus an example that she knitted in Denver.  Carol was happy to model the liner.

Semper Fi, Cutie Pie

Carol is still working on her niece’s legwarmers and will begin her choreography stint this week.

Legwarmers for a tiny dancer

Michele showed us some extremely cool cord that she is using to make another belt.  I really covet this cord for a kitchen curtain, but it is so expensive that Leslie says I can only knit a three inch valance.  Hmmm.  Is that too short?

I LOVE this cord. So pretty, so shiny, so expensive!

Well, that’s about it for the week’s meeting of the Castoffs.  Next week we meet at Marsha’s house.  For the two weeks after that, I will be in Florida and will miss the Castoffs SO MUCH!  I’m trying to decide what to take with me to knit.  Hm.  Traveler’s socks?  Boucle sweater?  Thick and Thin scarf?  I’ll have to think about it.  In the meantime, keep those needles moving.

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