We met at Marylane’s house on a blustery, cloudy afternoon.  We were glad to be together however and Marylane greeted us with fruit, banana bread and wine.  It’s always nice to be welcomed.  Some of us had a hard time settling down to business (or pleasure, in our case).

"Whaddya think, ya wanna knit?" "Nah, let's drink wine and think about it."

Eventually, Julie and Marylane did get around to knitting.  You know, knitting isn’t the only thing we do when we meet.  We critique…just about everything.  Like, this blog.  I was getting some comments about how certain people don’t like to see their photos on this blog.  In fact, Michele doesn’t always read the blog just because she doesn’t like to see her photo on the blog.  That hurts.  Maybe I could put a black bar across her face like newspapers did during Prohibition when reporters photographed miscreants that were busted for violating the law.  No, that doesn’t seem right.  It would give the wrong impression.  I really don’t want to omit anyone from the blog – what would I call it?  Castoff Castoffs?  My answer at the meeting was this.  “Tough!!  I’m gonna capture the moment anyway!”   But I’ll try to be  more ‘sensitive’ about the photos I use.  The problem is that I’m so busy talking and knitting that I remember and ‘snap’ without doing a lot of careful posing.  I guess a little photo-altering is in order.

Speaking of Michele, her sister gave her a beautiful skirt but the waistband had, uh, issues.  Someone mentioned to her that perhaps it could also be worn as a tube-top dress.  Michele didn’t like this notion, but we persuaded her to try it.  This is the result.  Judge for yourself.

For Michele, who will remain faceless

I’m not sure that this photo will endear me any better with Michele.  Sorry.  If it makes you feel any better, Michele, here is a photo of Mary.

Every visit to Spokane is a little bit of toe heaven

Mary was still working on the polar bear scarf, so when she slipped off her shoe, I took this photo instead of the same ol’ scarf.  C’mon Mary, knit faster!

Leslie is working on bridesmaid ‘thick and thin’ scarf number 6.  Leslie seems to have worked out a way to avoid the invading lens of the blogger.

Only ONE more!

I wonder what Leslie will begin once the scarves are finished?

Carol found out that her second future grandchild is a GIRL!  Yay!  Little future knitter!  She immediately started a blanket for her.  She’s still working on the ball-band blanket for her future grandson.

Julie shares in the joy

Marylane asked a very interesting question about measuring yarn to use when casting on.  We got into a discussion about how much to measure, whether you should just wing it, or try, try again.  Leslie’s method is to measure about an inch per stitch, count out that amount plus a little more and start casting on.  I find that keeping the loose end of the yarn on the right as I cast on utilizes the loose end fully.  See, sometimes we do talk about knitting.

Is this a yard?

This brings up a ticklish issue.  Sometimes we begin a project full of enthusiasm and earnestness and it just goes…wrong.  There may come a time when something you knit turns out…wrong.  This is the question, knitters.  At what point do you just wrap it up and cast it off?  At what point is knitting a garment that you KNOW you don’t want or like very much the tipping point?  Marylane reached the tipping point on her yellow sweater that was taking up a lot of her time and giving back little reward.  Marylane just said NO.  Good for you for knowing when to stop, Marylane.  Sometimes a knitter should admit that her project should become a castoff.

A Castoff decides to make it a castoff

Well, it seems to have been a week for getting things off our chests.  Literally.

Next week we’ll meet at Michele’s house.  I’m looking forward to taking more sensitive photos.  Marylane’s looking forward to knitting something she likes.  Leslie’s looking forward to knitting the final bridesmaid scarf.  Carol is looking forward to holding her darling grandchildren wrapped in the blankets lovingly knitted by their grandmother.  Julie is looking forward to her vacation next month.  We are all looking forward.  We Castoffs are just a forward-looking bunch.  Keep on knittin’.

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