The Castoffs met at Julie’s house and were surprised to see Michele there!! Yay! It was great to see her and to hear firsthand about Erica’s surgery. Erica had gone home earlier that day and we were so happy for her, Michele and Joel.
It's our Michele! Talking to Julie and Leslie.
Marylane had gone to the hospital the night before to visit Erica and took some photos of some of the gifts that the Castoffs had bought her. She looks great in these photos!
Erica with the top/nightie.
Green hoodie that we all liked.
Slippers pointed the wrong way! Cute.
Great journal that I covet...and notecards.
Erica, we send all our love and hope that you feel better very soon. You are truly on the mend now! We had a little something left over, so Julie knitted a quick i-cord to wrap around it. Shh. Don’t tell Michele.
A girl has to have a little spending money, right?
As to the meeting…it was Jello shots and pearls. If that sounds like a goofy theme – well, you’re right. The Jello shots idea came from some of the little boneheads at the Middle School who thought it would be a good idea to bring them to school. Drunk eighth graders would never be noticed. Right? Wrong. When several of us Castoffs mentioned that we had never had Jello shots, someone had the brilliant idea to serve them, so Julie cooked up some Jello shots/cubes for us.
Jello and vodka squares on the left...guacamole and chips on the right. Choose your poison.
That first Jello shot was pure hell. Tasted funny and it was too runny to handle very well. Here was Julie’s reaction:
Uhhh, SMOOTH!
Leslie caught me in a BEFORE, DURING and AFTER sequence. Draw your own conclusion.
Before...sweet anticipation.
Down the hatch!
Uhh, not so great.
Oddly enough, the second Jello shot wasn’t as bad. The third was even MORE not-so-bad. We all didn’t try them, especially after everyone got a load of our faces after the first one, but it was an experiment in the name of scientific investigation. Linda had just about the same reaction, but I believe she had another just to be sure.
Hey, that's not so bad...eventually.
Speaking of Linda, she is still making magic with her baby hat and the emerging pattern is fascinating. Julie’s husband Brian thought it was pretty cool. And that was before he tried the Jello shots.
Fascinating pattern. Cat not included.
Apres Jello shot.
Brian came in at the end of the meeting and took some shots of the whole gang. It’s always fun to have the occasional male presence. As long as they don’t get used to it.
Carol pulled out her mittens that she was knitting with the little circular needle. STOP THE PRESSES! SHE LOST THE NEEDLE. It is tiny, so panic ensued and we all rushed to help.
OMG! Where is it? It cost $16!
Leslie helped by taking a butt shot. I leaned over slightly.
And then Carol had an AHA moment. “Did I take it out of the knitting before I left my house?” Well, Yes She Did as it turned out. But the excitement was superb while it lasted.
Oh, yeah. It might be at the house.
That’s okay, Carol. Anytime Julie wants her furniture rearranged, she’ll call on you.
Never let it be said that the Castoffs are derelict in their current medical technological knowledge. We got on the subject of blood pressure (maybe after a few Jello shots, some guacamole with chips and black olives and a glass of wine) and we all talked about the new directive of using a blood pressure cuff on BOTH arms. Before we could say systolic, Julie had whipped out her BP cuff and strapped it on her arm. In spite of appearances in the following photo, she was still alive.
DISCLAIMER ALERT: DON’T ALLOW SMALL CHILDREN OR RELATIVES OF JULIE SEE THIS PHOTO.
Whaddya mean - 50 over 10?
I assisted her with the other arm and we determined that Julie needed another Jello shot.
Other Castoffs really did come to knit – hard as it is to believe. Francy is coming right along on her top-down sweater. She made a couple of changes in the pattern – That’s our Francy! – she made a Johnny collar instead of a stand-up collar and knitted 7 buttonholes instead of 3. But other than that, she followed the pattern to the letter.
Francy loves to personalize her patterns.
Leslie brought her chic beret that she finished. Oh dear. It’s kind of…big. We all loved the way it LOOKED but not the way it FIT.
Where are you, Leslie? Oh, under the giant hat.
She looked a little bit like a refuge from the Depression era – except for the stunning pearls. Francy thought she should take a tuck and add a big button. Not a bad idea and it would look darling on Francy that way.
"And put a button right here!"
Marylane suggested that Leslie felt it to shrink that sucker up a bit. We Castoffs run into this kind of conundrum all the time. Wonder what Leslie will do? Stay tuned.
Speaking of stunning pearls, I bet you’re all wondering why we were wearing pearls. No? Well, not very observant, are you? As you know, our Joan is a knitter who lives in Arizona in the winter. A knitter but not a purler. Purler – get it – PEARLER. So this homage is for Joan, smugly warm in the south while we’re all up here in our igloos, chewing on walrus blubber. If you look very closely, you’ll notice, JOAN, that we sent you a digital message as we held up our pearls – especially from Marylane. We do love you, Joan. And miss you a lot.
This PEARL's for you, Joan!
Deb has started a new project – a summer top in a beautiful mauve color – and was SO quiet throughout all the nonsense going on around her that when we finally settled down to have another Jello shot, I had to snap this photo.
Hmm, then you cast on...how many?
The yarn matched her jacket. Deb, that’s a lot of concentrating going on. Have a Jello shot.
I finished my Harris Tweed green shawl. I have to block it now, but I kind of like the bumps that the pattern created. Maybe if I block it just a little…another conundrum.
Even when you finish, you're not finished...
Julie was knitting a pair of mittens, but put them down because she ‘screwed up’. Well, Jules, that’s what an uneven Blood Pressure reading and three Jello shots will do to a girl. Love the mitts anyway!
Beautiful colors. Keep at it, Jules!
Next time, we meet at Carol’s other house – THE house – if you know what I mean. The one Deb can walk to. It’ll be a new adventure for the Castoffs and we’re all looking forward to it. Until then, stay warm and keep those needles blazing. And lay off the Jello shots, y’all.
