The Castoffs met at Marsha’s house on a very cloudy day.  The question in my mind was “Should we try to sit outside and risk getting rained on, or should we sit inside and insure that no rain will fall?”  Well, we ended up sitting inside and yes, it didn’t rain.  Geez.  By the time it looked fine, the moment had passed and we were settled in our seats, unbudgeable.  We had a good time, regardless, and laughed and talked and some did some knitting, but not me.  I did get my knitting out and place it on the table before me, but I was too busy talking and laughing and drinking to wrap my head around my pattern.

We were joined today by Elree and her daughter, Liza, my friends who came to town to volunteer at the Rebecca Farms Equestrian Event that occurs every July in Kalispell.  I was delighted that they came to my knitting group.  Elree knits and Liza does counted cross-stitch, and they are both a little warped, so they fit right in with the group.

Elree the sock-meister, er, sock-meistress.

Julie was just chewing, not judging, our guest Liza.

Liza does beautiful cross-stitch and was working on a design from a medieval tapestry (oddly enough, the same tapestry that I needlepointed many years ago) that includes a unicorn.  She is just now working on the border but I got a photo of the finished design from the packaging.  Couldn’t believe that someone actually calls them ‘spectacles’ anymore.  How Harry Potter!

What Liza's design will ultimately look like.

Eli made some lemon bars – gooey, but good – and I put together a veggie plate with dip and threw some rice crackers in a bowl.  Voila!  Snacks.  And of course, we had wine, lemonade and iced tea.  Ah, summertime and the cool liquids flow.

Yum. Snacks!

Carol was knitting some fingerless mitts for her sister and needed help on a question of increasing into a purl bump.  Huh?  Well, Leslie and Carol put their heads together and came up with a solution.  My suggestion was to decide on a method and stick with it throughout the entire mitt – right or wrong.  Continents have been discovered – and missed entirely – using that same philosophy.

Carol's wonderful non-cable pattern for her sister's mitts.

Right in the middle of her fingerless mitt, Carol confessed that she and her friend, at a local restaurant, neglected to pay for their lunch today.  Deadbeat Carol!  She’s trying to make it right, if only the restaurant would stay open past lunchtime.  Personally, I’m afraid that there is an APB out on our Carol.  We’ll bring your knitting to the big house, Carol!

The Julester was working on a market bag that was driving her crazy.  She has worked the faggoting stitch, ripped out the faggoting stitch, worked the faggoting stitch, ripped out the faggoting stitch.  Damn faggoting stitch…not that there’s anything wrong with that.  Anyway, I believe that she overcame her wavering belief in the pattern instructions and will joyfully continue to knit her market bag.  Accept the spiral of the pattern, Julie!  Accept it and don’t try to convert it to your conservative beliefs.  Ahem.  Sorry.  Been reading too much about Michelle Bachman’s husband.

Sometimes you just have to embrace the faggoting stitch without question.

Elree brought up a topic that was both hysterically funny and oddly unsettling – her department at Westminster College bets on a “Dead Pool” – that is, they bet on what famous people will die during the upcoming semester (or quarter – I’m a little fuzzy on that university’s schedule).  I was very amused that Ernest Borgnine has been in Elree’s pool for several years and just WILL NOT DIE!  Funny…I thought he died years ago.  That’s when the website “DEAD OR ALIVE” comes in handy.  Liza suggested that her mother put Michael Jackson on her dead pool several years ago (just a hunch) and to Elree’s chagrin, Michael died that year.  Go figure.  And he wasn’t on her list!

Joan joined us and is still working on her scarf – the mysterious scarf that never really looks like it’s growing.  Hmmm.  Joan, are you sure you aren’t channeling Odysseus’ wife and unraveling what you work on each week?

Ah, Penelope, we hardly knew ye.

Leslie has finished her shawl and is taking a breather between projects.  She bought a book of cowl patterns (because she said she’d buy the book if her daughter Sienna said she liked two patterns from it.  Duh, Leslie.  Should have said five.)  Anyway, Leslie was poring over the book, and showing us the really laughable, lame ones.  There were several.  I’m sure she’ll be on track next week with a cowl project.

Hmmm. Robbie the Robot cowl, NO. Big balls cowl, NO. Hmmm.

Leslie asked about the alligator that I started knitting a looonnng time ago for my brother, so I brought it up from the ‘dungeon of unfinished projects’ – aka my guest room – and we mutually decided that I needed to be shamed into finishing it.

“Does that really work?”  Joan wanted to know.

“No,”  I said.

But if it makes Leslie feel that she is making a difference…Okey dokey with me.

She wants to name it Chomp.  Julie wants to name it Al.  I just want it to finish itself and mail itself to Florida.

You can be my bodyguard. You can call me Al.

"The Gator ate your granny. Chomp, chomp, chomp."

OK, enough of the musical themes.  Elree brought me a bag from her local yarn shop – “Blazing Needles.”  When she told me about it last year, I made it my tagline for this blog.  Here goes again.  Keep those needles blazing, Castoffs, and I’ll see you next week at Michele’s house.

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