We had an all-time record for the Castoffs at Michele’s house – 11 of us, one of whom was Francy’s daughter Betsy visiting from Minnesota.  We were happy to see her after watching her sweater take shape.  Some of us remembered her from her growing-up days here in Kalispell and some were meeting her for the first time.  Come back anytime, Betsy!  Francy is going on a cruise in the Eastern Mediterranean, so we will miss her for a MONTH!  Waaah!  We’ll keep in touch through the blog, though, so have fun, Francy, and think of us.

Betsy admiring Marylane's felted bag.

Francy brought us a Lithuanian apricot cake that was delicious and flaky.  I think that Betsy brought it from a favorite bakery in Minneapolis.  Wherever it came from, thanks you two, it was great!  Francy has been making more kiddie’s caps that are so cute.  I made so many kiddie gifts last Christmas that I’ve made a vow to be selfish and knit for me, me, me for a while.  Ah, that felt good.  Sometimes you just have to think of yourself first, right?

Francy with her cute caps.

It was a scarf kind of day.  Julie was knitting a scarf out of self-striping yarn.  “Wow, how does the yarn know when to change colors?”  Mary wanted to know.  Well, Mary, the yarn just has to be smarter than the knitter, I guess.

Julie and her smart-yarn scarf.

Leslie brought her finished scarf that was knit on size 3 needles.  “Never again!!”  she vowed.  It took a long time and much swearing, but the scarf turned out beautifully.  Was it worth it, Leslie?  Of course it was.

It was worth all the effort! Beautiful!

I brought my finished seed stitch scarf that I really enjoyed making .  The pattern was soothing and lasted through several football games one weekend.  That could be my gauge of contented knitting – how easily I can knit and watch the game at the same time.

Say, is that mad gleam in your eye for knitting or for football? Or both?

We had an activities day at the Castoffs meeting.  Mary brought her finished bag to felt at Michele’s house (Mary has a front-loading washing machine and didn’t want a coin purse instead of a handbag).  I got some ‘before and after’ pictures of the bag which miraculously turned out the way it was supposed to.  Miraculous for me – I’ve never been through the felting process and it was amazing to see how easy it was.

Before

After!

I like it!  And I have a top loader!

We had another surprise activity.  Michele passed a hat with numbers for us to choose and she drew one corresponding number for a DOOR PRIZE!  How exciting!  Francy won and opened a little package that turned out to be a DORK PRIZE!  It was a tangled heap of eyelash yarn that Michele was using to finish up the fringe on her little poncho.  Well, if you’ve ever worked with eyelash yarn, you’ll know that it loves itself so much that it gloms up and the only way to resolve the glominess is to THROW IT AWAY!  Thus, the dork prize.  Michele has enough to finish the poncho’s hood, but Francy gracefully offered her heap if it was ever needed.

DORK PRIZE!!

The poncho that Michele is knitting is almost done – only the hood is left to go.  We’ll see if the devil eyelash yarn is tamed or drives Michele over the edge.

The eyelash yarn looks fairly benign here, doesn't it?

We are so sad to say goodbye to Joan and Linda.  Joan will be going back to her home in Arizona for the winter and Linda is moving to Denver to be near her son.  We have had so much fun getting to know them over the summer and we look forward to next summer when they can rejoin us for more knitting, laughter, wine and companionship.  We’ll miss you both!  Happy knitting!

Next week our group will be a lot smaller – Joan and Linda will be on to new adventures, Francy will be headed for the cruiseship and Marylane will be thinking about a book sale and a trip to Boston.  I’m so glad that they will all be able to keep up with our going’s on online.  I’ll give a shoutout to you all every week.  Bon Voyage, knitters.

Keep on knittin', Joan!

It's only fair to share...