The Castoffs met on a cloudy day that cleared up nicely in the afternoon. I got a little help from my son, Eli, who chopped up some homemade salsa – hot, hot, hot, but good, good, good. I served veggies and spinach dip and chips. Pinot Gris and Cabernet Sauvignon. As always, we’re well-fed.
Yum.
It was great fun to see Leslie. She finished Mira’s monkey and brought it to show and tell. The little button eyes are wonderful, aren’t they? It’s slightly understuffed, just the right amount of squishy-ness.
I’m thinking Leslie will keep Monkey out of the box until it’s time to give him to Mira.
“Everybody’s got something to hide, ‘cept for me and my monkey.” –Lennon and McCartney
Julie was having a crisis. She was feeling knitting-pattern-challenged recently, what with the difficult Almond Scarf pattern and the Lace Kitchen Curtain pattern. Both have mulitple repeats and poor Julie’s head was spinning. I tried to explain part of it to her, but she just wanted something SIMPLE to knit right now.
Hard patterns suck.
Later, in an email, she told me that she started a Knit Simple top-town cardigan using some beautiful yarn that she bought at Joseph’s Coat in Missoula. Ahhhh. Better.
Linda jumped into a new pattern – a drop-stitch pattern using multi-colored yarn. Very pretty. This won’t take long, I bet, but it looks hard to me.
Ooh, it matches her sweater…
Closeup of the dropped stitch scarf.
Joan and Marylane joined us. Yay! It was so good to see them again. They just came back from listening to Marylane’s daughter, Kendra’s, oral dissertation for her PhD. Calling Dr. Kuhl! Calling Dr. Kuhl! It’s great to have them back. Marylane is knitting her mitten. I just got a copy of the pattern, so there will be mittens in my future, too. Joan brought her scarf, but I don’t think she took it out of the bag. Hmmm.
Sisters knitting and drinking wine, but not necessarily in that order.
Deb dropped by. She and her husband just got back from Hawaii. Sounds like they had a wonderful time. Deb was telling us about going to a Fire Dance on a nudist beach. Ouch. She should know better than to tell the Castoffs something like that. We always take it in directions WAY off subject. Needless to say, we had fun with the subject of nudity and fire in close proximity — could be explained by the two bottles of wine we were drinking. Anyway, Deb is going to borrow my copy of WILD by Cheryl Strayed. Hope she likes it as much as I did.
Not exactly the sex on the trail book that she heard about. But very good.
Mary was so excited about her daughter and granddaughter coming in tonight from Las Vegas. She is working on the little top for Aurora. I love this color.
Cute little top!
I later heard that Larissa’s plane was delayed and they didn’t get to Kalispell until nearly midnight. Poor Aurora was exhausted, but she’ll be better now that she’s at Gramma’s house.
In hopes that the weather cooperates with us next week, we’ll be meeting in Woodland Park at 3:30. Now, pay close attention because this portion of the directions required a graphic demonstration from our lovely hand model, Leslie. We are going to meet near the Rose Garden, so travel left at the entrance, around the OLD pool beside the lake and park close to the Garden. Bring a chair! Here is the graphic demonstration part:
The blob of salsa is the Old Pool. The interior decorative circle is the Road. Follow the decorative circle around the salsa to the green bit on the lower right hand side. Park here.
If you can’t find the Old Pool, it could be that Leslie ate it.
After everyone left, I realized that I will be in Canada next week, and will miss knitting with you. If you get lost circling the salsa, call Leslie. It was her idea.
I’m sorry to miss the meeting outdoors in our lovely park next week. I’ll be in Medicine Hat, Alberta. Please don’t ask me why. Just keep those needles blazing and enjoy the summer weather.
BTW: I would totally marry Jim Morrison if he wasn’t dead.
