Summer is finally here and, boy, are we happy to see the sunshine. We gathered at Marylane’s house and admired her beautiful garden and yard. Marylane and her husband Dick are gardeners extraordinaire!
Marylane’s big garden.
The rest of Marylane’s back yard and part of the deck.
Marylane picked some pretty lettuce from her garden and arranged it around a bowl of tabouleh for some lettuce wraps. Topped it off with hummus and pita triangles. Yummy!
A summery treat.
Michele and Leslie are knitting the same cowl in different colors, but both are stunning. They are using a lace pattern with a beaded lace inset. So beautiful. Michele knitted hers as a gift for her sister. I know she’ll love it.
The lovely soft cowl.
A better look at the beaded portion of the cowl.
Leslie is knitting her cowl as a gift for her daughter, who is about to deliver her first child at any moment! Wow. Leslie thought at first that she would knit the scarf while Sienna is in labor, but after thinking about the stress involved with waiting for her new granddaughter, Leslie isn’t so sure she wants to be knitting an intricate beaded pattern just then. Can’t say that I blame her.
This shows the beaded part of Leslie’s cowl.
Another view of Leslie’s cowl.
Leslie is using her grandmother’s teeny tiny crochet hook to put the beads on the yarn. It is really VERY small. But it’s better than stringing all of them on the yarn before you start, which is the only way I knew about. I might have to try that method.
Michele was knitting a bi-colored sweater. She ordered the yarn online from Knitpicks (I think) and wasn’t as pleased with the trim color as she had been when she viewed it on the website. We all liked it.
Michele’s sweater.
I think she thought the edging yarn would be more burgundy and less brown, but I think these colors will do nicely.
Michele’s friend Betsy was visiting from Oregon, so she brought her along. Betsy had joined us a couple of years ago while visiting Michele and brought along the same project that she was working on then. She isn’t a knitter ordinarily, but she was knitting away on her poncho. Good to see you again, Betsy!
Betsy showing Marylane her poncho-in-progress.
Francy’s husband Harry joined us for a while, but when Lisa appeared, Harry went to her house to talk to Lisa’s husband. Guess Harry just wasn’t as enthralled with our knitting projects as we are! That’s okay because we were all interested in seeing little Greta Grace. Especially Marylane. When Lisa’s daughter-in-law asked what day Lisa wanted to babysit, Lisa thought of the Castoffs and said Thursday. Thanks, Lisa. We need a baby boost.
It’s GRETA!
We talked about the chair, of course. Julie brought an interesting pattern for the seat that is a pattern of circular I-cords joined in a spiral. Julie took some yarn and is going to knit a practice gauge for us to see next time. We were all excited about that kind of seat because it looked more substantial and less stretchy than the chevron seat that we liked last week. It’ll all come together eventually and the fun will be in the planning.
I decided to use some Noro yarn that I had in my stash to learn a new technique. The pattern is an entre-lac design that uses short rows to make a series of diagonal squares. It’s an interesting design and once I mastered the pattern, I like knitting the interlocking rows. Noro makes the scarf more interesting because it is a self-striping wool. Sometimes it’s good to try something new.
My Noro Entre-lac scarf.
Next week we meet at Linda’s house. Sounds like it’s going to be a hot, hot week in the 90’s so stay cool, Castoffs. Hope those blazing needles don’t set your yarn on fire!
