We Castoffs met at Carol’s house on a damp, cloudy day to begin work, in earnest, on the chair that we’re yarnbombing for the Library fundraiser that will take place in the spring. We brought our swatches, finished and un, to pin onto the chair so we could get an idea of what we wanted to do. Should it resemble a flower? With a poppy seat and greenery climbing up the sides? Should a lake be at the bottom, nurturing our little flower? Should we have a bright and beautiful sun orbiting across the back of the chair?

Who knows?  But we did make a start and bandy around a lot of good ideas and opinions. Here are some of the photos of the process, not necessarily in order.

Leslie recapping the discussion from a few weeks ago.

Closeup of the beautiful spiral seat that Michele is working on.

Slowly beginning to dress the limbs.

Different placement for existing swatches.

This project is going to be a lot of FUN. We all bring such different ideas to the meetings as well as a lot of enthusiasm. Some of us got homework assignments that we’ll try out for next time. Can’t wait to see how it ends up!

Other knitting was happening…

Carol finished her little knitted dog and of course, as irreverent as we are, we had to stage a photo op for the little fella.

Hold on there, little guy, this is a no-pee zone!

Hey, it’s all just grist for our ever-turning mills.  Carol was working on his little collar. She wants to attach a little name tag to it and give it to her son and his family who just lost their doggie. Aaww. How sweet. She’s knitting another one for her other son.

A collar for Fido.

Thanks to Carol for hosting and to Mary for bringing the treats. Cheese and crackers, veggies and dip and sinfully delicious blueberries dipped in dark chocolate.  Yum. It was tasty.

Treats! Thanks, Mary and Carol.

Linda had finished the colorful hats for her friend’s little boys and was back to knitting her prayer shawl. Such a pretty color, Linda. I like it.

Linda and her prayer shawl.

Marylane was working on her swatch for the chair using an interesting stitch pattern. I’ll be eager to see what it looks like next week.

Marylane in deep concentration.

Julie is knitting a swatch for the chair from one of my favorite dishcloth patterns. And not just dishcloths! Leslie used this pattern to knit a rug for her guest bathroom. Very striking. It’ll look great on the chair.

Great pattern, great colors.

Leslie was knitting a pair of fingerless mitts, propelled by the cold temperature in the writing lab at the middle school. We asked if she was really going to keep them for herself.

“Well, if I bond with them, I’ll keep them. If not, they’ll be a Christmas gift.”

We get it, Leslie. We’ve all made such ‘personalized’ Christmas gifts ourselves.

Very cool random box pattern.

Next week we’ll meet at Deb’s house. We haven’t seen Deb in a couple of weeks, so it’ll be great to see her. Don’t forget to bring your chair swatches or homework assignment. Mine is going more slowly than I thought it would, but maybe that’s a good thing. If nobody loves it, I can rip out less yarn. Yeah, let’s look on the bright side.

Until then, Castoffs, keep those needles blazing and stay dry. It’s rainy out there. Keep a good thought in your hearts for our countrymen and women being pounded by Hurricane Sandy.

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