YPF! The Early Contest Edition

Socks that Rock, Lightweight, Mill Ends

(not sure which color this is, there is some grayish purple that looks like the color "flaw" in spots)

Pretty, bright and cheery color, don't you think? Well, we are giving it away on Saturday to celebrate the 1-year blogiversary of We Do Not Have A Knitting Problem! (I know I know...if I were to name the blog again, it would problably have to be a "stash" problem...I know).

And to help keep the "we" in "WE" there will be a special post by someone other than yours truly! Will Pashyknits drop in with her quarterly post? Will it be someone else? A new addition? That's the contest. Guess who it is and that person will pick from the correct guesses a lucky winner who will receive the yarn above!

Will the guest blog post be from...

1) Pashyknits

2) Boondock Saint

3) Rowan

4) Little Guy's Mom

5) Snowboarder

6) One of my readers

7) A brand new addition to the blog

Leave your guess in the comments and I'll pick a winner at random on Saturday! And, don't worry, there will more yarn prizes on Saturday!!!

ETA: For more yarny prizes (of the Fleece Artist kind), go check out Tapmouse's contest...quick, it ends tomorrrow!! We came blame her yarn-enabling photos for some of my "stash problem" but we LOVE her!

xoxo Irishgirlieknits

Another ETA: Guest Blogger posted early this morning. Go see who won the prize and watch for more prizes later today!

Happy Holidays!

I have to agree with all your comments that Little Guy is a cutie (thanks! I'm just the auntie..I had nothing to do with it!). But I realized that I've been neglecting these two cuties on the blog lately. So, modeling Little Guy's new Candy Cane Hat, here are Puddles and Bailey to bring you some holiday cheer!

Disclaimer: The hat will be washed before being mailed to Little Guy! And, no doggies were harmed in this photo shoot or taken out in public looking this way, and they were actually quite happy as they received lots of doggie treats during this photo shoot!





Puddles

Bailey

Pattern: Candy Cane Hat, from Itty Bitty Hats by Susan B. Anderson
Yarn: Crystal Palace Merino 5, purchased at Purlescence Pajama Jammie Jam last week
Mods: none :)

If you are looking for a quick-knit, holiday gift here you go! I like to call it....

Ornament that Rocks!

Pattern: Having a Ball, Vogue Knitting Holiday 2007

Yarn: Socks that Rock, mediumweight, color Hollyday

Super quick! Just have about 11 more to knit!!

Speaking of Socks that Rock, the 1-year blogiversary is coming up on Saturday!! That means I'll be giving aways some Socks that Rock (I know you all thought that big pile of yarn from the barn sale really was just for me!). Details coming soon!

Happy Holidays!

xoxo Irishgirlieknits

Go Irish!

Notre Dame defeats Stanford 21-14

Little Guy's first Notre Dame game!

My new Fetchings made their debut at the game too!

Even though I finished them in Portland a few weeks ago.

Go Irish! Beat Cardinals!

xoxo Irishgirlieknits

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope you all had a fabulous Thanksgiving yesterday! We are still celebrating here. Yesterday, my sister, Dad, and I spent the day at my Aunt and Uncle's house celebrating with my cousins and their kids. Dinner was delicious and so relaxing to not have to cook.

Today, we did a mini-Thanksgiving with my brother, SIL, Little Guy, sis, Dad, puppies and me. My brother and SIL are down in the Bay Area for the rest of the weekend to go to the Notre Dame-Stanford Football game with us tomorrow so we celebrated Turkey dinner tonight. In addition to our traditional turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, and green bean casserole, I made one of my favorite salads:

Goat Cheese, Cranberries, Candied Pecans, Apples, and Balsamic Vinagrette

And Rowan requested a new stuffing recipe.

Apple Bacon Cornbread Stuffing

(this was probably the favorite of the meal by everyone!)

Our Blogstalking assignment this week is what we are thankful for. I have to say I am very blessed to have a wonderful family and for that I am thankful. And this year, we are especially blessed to have Little Guy join our family!

Little Guy loves his roller coaster rides from daddy

I'm also thankful for my friends :) And this year includes all of my new knitty friends, two of whom I finally got to meet this morning at Purlescence's Pajama Jammie Jam (yarn 30% off if you arrive at 6am...I'm there!). It was great to finally meet you Leslie and Celia (whose monkeys are super cute, even at 6am!)! Cpurl, hopefully soon...soon!

Some FOs pictures to come soon... holiday knitting here we come!!

Enjoy the rest of your holiday weekend!

xoxo Irishgirlieknits

Rockin' Unoriginal Hat

Rowan loves her new hat!





Pattern: An Unoriginal Hat by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee
Yarn: Blue Moon Fiber Arts Leticia in unknown (?) color from the Barn Sale ($11 for a hat...can't beat that!)
Notes: Quick knit! Started last night and finished it today at Purlescence (and Lisa it was so nice to finally meet you!!); its a bit fitted on Rowan, still need to block it


And a wee, little hat for Hot Mama's soon-to-be baby!




Its the baby hat from One Skein...super quick knit!


The only downside to both of these hats is that neither are Christmas presents. I've got one or two more gifts to knit (babies! babies! babies!). I did cast on another pair of socks though that are Christmas knitting.

Have a great week!
xoxo Irishgirlieknits

Inspiration

Where does it come from?

Thuja Socks, in Socks that Rock heavyweight, color Stormy Weather

+

Rockin' Barn Sale

+

Crisp, fall days

=

Thuja-Inspired Fingerless Gloves

Pattern: Thuja-Inspired Fingerless Gloves

Yarn: Socks that Rock heavyweight, color January One (note: I still have 2/3 of the skein left so I'm hoping to squeeze out a women's size of Thuja socks to match)

Needles: size 5 (I used magic loop, but could also use DPNs)

Gauge: 6 stitches/ 8 rows = 1 inch in pattern

Finished Measurements: for large size, cuff circumference 7.25 inches (unstretched); length 7.5 inches

How to Make Your Own: Cast on either 36 (S), 40 (M), or 44(L) stitches. I cast on 44 and would say my gloves are a bit loose. My next pair I would cast on 40. Follow the stitch pattern for Thuja (thank you Knitty for being free!!). I started with a 1 x 1 rib cuff for 1", then followed the pattern for approximately 6 inches (you can make this as long or as short as you want depending on your preference and if you are trying to get a pair of socks out of the skein or using up leftover yarn). Then, to prepare for thumb, use waste yarn and knit 8 stitches at the beginning of the round. Slip those 8 knit stitches back onto the needle and knit again using the working yarn. Continue in pattern for approximately 12 more rows (or until desired length). Bind off. ETA: I bound off a bit tightly on one glove so it did not roll. However, on the second, I bound off loosely and that glove does roll back a bit. Some people have modified pattern by either binding off in pattern, or knitting a few rows of 1 x 1 ribbing and then binding off.

(Thumb) Go back to the stitches on the waste yarn. Carefully remove the waste yarn and place the 8 stitches below on a DPN and 7 stitches above on a DPN. Attach the yarn and knit the 8 stitches. Pick up 3 additional stitches in the gap between the row above and below. Knit across the 7 stitches and then pick up 2 additional stitches in the gap on the other side (20 stitches total). Join and continue working in pattern for six additional rows. Bind off loosely. Make another one to match :)

Happy Knitting!
xoxo Irishgirlieknits

The Barn Sale

Obviously, we took this picture after we made our purchases.

Happy happy girl. Oh, and that gorgeous skein of Icelandic on top of the
pile, in the Harlotty colorway, well, Snowboarder has already claimed that.
Rowan is on the phone asking how bad the damage is.


Christy watched over "our" pile while I shopped. Tina sat right across from her too, smiling away! Christy picked out half that pile too! Oh, and Christy wants me to stop calling it "our" pile since she technically has nothing to do with this addiction.

But note that fabulous tote bag she made me to match the sock bag Zonda made me!

You can get one here!

If only Tina let me take this color-genius basket home. But at least I was able to see them up close and personal. Gorgeous.

More ravens.

Wanted to stay and chat with Tina more, but ummmm...

Christy's husband had a Disco birthday party planned! Look at his attention to detail above!!

The Mudd Puddles were quite good :)

And of course, there were cupcakes.

xoxox Irishgirlieknits

ETA: Dad, remember, I was buying for 8 other people too!! Not all of that is mine :) Most, but not all!

A Quick Destash Drive-By

A quick hi from Portland! Me and my "extra" bag of yarn fly home tomorrow! Christy and I had a blast at the Destash yesterday! Although there weren't any rare gems (my favorite), everything was on sale (mostly mill end sock yarns!). Lucky for me Christy was with me because it all went fast (we got there at 10:10 and I would say most of the sock yarn was cleaned out by 10:40). Christy and I just reached for pretty colors and then tried to put a few back from our big pile (tough when you are buying for other people, but it is STR and all the colors are pretty).

Lots of pictures tomorrow night (including some of the Ravens that Tina showed us after!!), but to hold you over, here are Neuroknitter's pictures! She was behind us in line. I met her at Twisted on my last trip (love her blog and didn't realize that that was who she was when we met before). Oh, and note, on her blog post, the big pile of yarn, ummmm.... that's ours. Christy was fabulous standing watch over it as I tried to figure out what to get or not get. I don't do well under pressure when it comes to pretty yarn. I think we did pretty well though. Luckily I destashed all that yarn beforehand to make room (and pay the credit card..phew!).

It's been a rockin' weekend!!
xoxo Irishgirlieknits

Let the Holiday Knitting Begin!

Here are the "Isn't Socktoberfest over?" socks. A pair of Thujas for a certain someone for Christmas. Things are going to get a bit tricky as I move into holiday knitting. I'll have to do some strategic planning of what I can post or not post. I know this person really only looks at the pictures!! And as much as I love these in Socks that Rock heavyweight (Stormy Weather), I think the certain recipient really wants thicker, wooly socks. He may just get two pairs for Christmas.

Hopefully I'll finish these tomorrow. I do have a little plane ride to Portland for ummm....holiday shopping? Squee. I'm a happy girl just thinking about it!




I'll leave you with Socks that Rock, mediumweight, Hard Rock.



Look at how the light pink blends perfectly into the gray.


Love the pink!



These socks will definately be for me! But probably not until after the holiday knitting. I'll just pet it for now :)

Thanks too for helping with the destash!! Have a rockin' weekend!
xoxo Irishgirlieknits

Destash!!

A destash worthy of two exclamation points?! Well, its just a few days until I go visit Christy, my best friend in Portland, and then we get to visit Tina's Destash!!! And while Christy is not sock obsessed or yarn obsessed like me, she just went to a huge fabric sale and added lots of new Amy Butler fabrics (at 40% off!) to her Fabric Stash!! Can't wait to see it!

And since we all know the possibility of me going broke at the Destash Sale, and that wouldn't be good, I'm doing some more destashing (we are talking yarntini no less! Somehow I ended up with doubles of some colors, don't know how that would have happened?! or maybe a sport and a fingering and that's not necessary....right?!). Anyways...to enable us all...here's a glimpse of just some of the pretties that need a new home! Rowan is so proud of me! Of course she does know I'm really just moving stash around to make room for next weekend. But still.

For more details on the destash, check out my Destash Flickr Set! If interested, feel free to email me at irishgirlieknits AT gmail DOT com

xoxo Irishgirlieknits

Tahoe Family Weekend

Rowan and I are having a fabulous weekend in Lake Tahoe with Little Guy and his mom and dad (aka my SIL and brother). We aunties got to do some babysitting this afternoon and took Little Guy for a walk in the woods. The weather is perfectly crisp, fall weather here.




Seriously, this little one just makes me smile. He is so cute and such a sweetie and loves to play with his aunties! Love him to bits!!


I also finished Rowan's Spindle Socks this morning. You can't tell from these pictures, but she is pretty happy too!







Rowan bought this orange, 100% cashmere yarn ($15 a skein, great price) at School Products in New York. The yarn softens a lot once soaked/washed (we tried the first sock when I finished knitting it). However, it feels a bit like cotton knitting it, so it was a bit hard on the hands. The socks required about 2 1/2 skeins. Loved this pattern and would definately knit it again.

That concludes my Socktoberfest knitting! Two and a half pairs, three if I had had a few days extra (heck, whose counting!). Not bad considering last year I cast on two socks and didn't finish them for months!

Up next, holiday knitting. Hopefully not so much as in years past. I'm really trying to focus on a few things for my family and close friends and I also have some birthday gifts and baby gifts to work on. And I'm hoping to get to some of my UFO's or WIP's because I don't want to have too many as we start the new year. I started one gift already. A pair of socks. Boondock Saint (smartass brother) says tonight, "Isn't Socktoberfest over though?" (note: we don't sit around discussing the blog until he says stuff like this. I think he's just trying to show me that I have a dedicated reader!).

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!
xoxo Irishgirlieknits

Halloween Fun!!

Hope you all had a Happy Halloween!! Loved seeing Disco's cuties and Bezzie's adorable guy pics today!! And I loved Tiennie's daughter's fairie costume, complete with Hallowig. And so I'm inspired to show you Rowan's adorable Halloween costume.

My sister, aka Rowan, aka girl-who-picks-out-her-next-pair-of socks-before-I-even-finish-her-orange-socks, is a 3rd grade teacher. She and her grade level team all dressed up as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (and they made their own costumes!!).

Here's Sneezy!!!



Isn't she cute!!

Of course, I'm not quite sure why she wasn't Sleepy or Grumpy...I'm just saying ;)

xoxo Irishgirlieknits