Auntie Saturday!

Lil' Guy is asleep on my bed right now....normally, after hanging out with him all day, I'm tired. And I am. But, the kicker, tomorrow, wake up call duty...is me! Yeap, the brother and SIL are enjoying a night on the town! First night for them both to be away from him!! Yay for them...and thank goodness they'll go home around noon (at least I can go back to bed!).

Since there was minimal knitting today....here are the highlights!


Please note. This is where he was when I got to my dad's house (that's the doggie door btw). Seriously. My brother said he was having fun.


I'm not sure I should have taken Lil' Guy AND three dogs for a walk.


He didn't quite understand why the doggies were all coming either...


That's right. One of my favorite moments of the day.


Another favorite moment.


Happiest lil' guy ever!!

Must to bed. Happy weekend!
xoxo Irishgirlieknits

Another List.

Not an exciting list. Just a list. Let's say, a Catch-Up-Don't-Want-to-Forget-To-Tell-You List.

Here goes.

1. Its official. Summer is over. Back to the long days of work, school has started, meetings, meetings, teachers, kids, tutors, meetings. Today was one of those days. My email seems to explode when school starts.....and stays that way until June. Thank goodness I love my job (and need money for sock camp).

2. On the plus side, college football season starts in less than two weeks. GO IRISH!!! (I know Bezzie is with me on this one!)

3. Caught up on my movies this weekend. Loved Cold Comfort Farm, but really really really loved this one. Enough that I may put it on my Christmas list. Just a sweet, beautiful movie. I told my sister she may want to show this one to her 3rd graders. I think Puddles may secretly be a fox after seeing this movie. Oh, and I heard about both movies from my knitting friends. I heart my knitting friends.

4. Speaking of knitting friends, I'm really missing Discoknits today (you ever have one of those days?!). I heart you Disco!

5. I've got 3 secret new design projects on the needles that I can't show you. Hopefully I can show you one soon. Because I fear the blog is not quite the same without the knitting, you know.

6. If you scroll on my sidebar, you'll see that sometime in the next week or so, the blog is going to have had 100,000 hits. Crazy, huh?! Granted, my family makes up for a good 10-20,000 of them, but still. Makes me really fear a boring blog as a result of #5 above.

7. Gearing up for September Smackdown, I vowed to get my exercise program in high gear. I am bound and determined to go snowboarding (well, more like fall-down-a-lot boarding, but wearing super-cute hats) this winter with Snowboarder (there, I said it on the blog, it will happen!). That just isn't going to happen if I don't get my butt in gear. So, today, after a long day of work, I did something that was maybe a first (definitely a rare thing). I told Snowboarder I couldn't hang out with him because I had to go swim my laps at the pool before it closed at 8pm (to clarify, I ditch him all the time for things like knitting, but never for exercise). Even more surprising, I felt really good after the swim (still tired, but you know, good tired).

8. I'm also trying to get my reading mojo back. I figure this may help with the walking on the treadmill thing. I finally found a book that is making it easier to get the mojo back.


The Time Traveler's Wife

I've had the book for forever and really wanted to read it before I saw the movie (which I hear is good). Now let's see if I can finish the book before the movie leaves the theaters.

9. That's about as much of my secret sock that I can show you. I'm loving how the STR colorway ST-1 is knitting up. I promise to show you soon.

10. When we get to 100,000 hits, I'm thinking contest!!! Any contest ideas? I've got the yarny prizes!!

Happy almost Tuesday (because, really, today, I'm over the Happy Monday)!!
xoxo Irishgirlieknits

More Sock Summit Goodies!

I'm still trying to find space in my stash for some of my new sock summit goodies! One of my new books, Toe-Up! by Chrissy Gardiner, I just love and have had it out all week!



Did you know that the lovely Neuroknitter did all the photography in the book?




That's right! I got her autograph :)

Chrissy's socks are gorgeous, but combined with Neuroknitter's photography....well, its absolute perfection!! I just love looking at the pictures! Here's my favorite....


I even have some lovely Plucky Knitter Superwash in the colorway Pumpkin Latte that will work perfectly! Oh, pumpkin....is it fall yet?!

Well, as you'll see from these next few goodies, my new stash feels like fall! I can't blame Neuroknitter for these acquisitions entirely, but we certainly enabled each other as we shopped the Marketplace at Sock Summit!


Wool Candy, Meringue Merino Sock, colorway Microbrew (can you just see the post Neuroknitter is going to do with this colorway... oh yes, she got this colorway too!!)


Hazel Knits, a limited edition sock summit colorway....love!!


And Briar Rose Fibers. A gorgeous skein of Grandma's Blessing. I just can't wait to knit this up!

I tried to stick with unique yarns that I had not yet tried or with colorways that I was going to knit up soon! No more sitting in the stash forever....or at least that's the hope! I still have a few purchases left to show you, but we'll save that for another day!

Here's to a happy weekend!! This will be my first weekend sleeping in my own bed both nights since the first weekend in July!! I've loved all my summer travels, but sometimes, its just good to be home. I'm actually looking forward to cleaning and organizing a bit. And knitting. Lots of knitting.

Happy Knitting!!
xoxo Irishgirlieknits

Weekend Fun!

We interrupt the Sock Summit posts (yes, there are still more!!) to share some pictures from this past weekend! My brother and lil' guy came down for a visit...fun fun fun!! We took lil' guy to the Palo Alto Children's Museum and Zoo that is nearby. He loved it, but kept asking where the tigers were? (Note: its a tiny zoo. very very tiny. no lions, tigers, and bears...).







Then there was some swimming!! That kid is a fish!!!




Every time I see lil' guy I just love him more and more!! He's at that fun age where he is talking constantly!! Love it!!!

Hope you all had a nice weekend!
xoxo Irishgirlieknits

Sock Summit....Sunday!

I still can't believe it was just a week ago that I was listening to the Luminary Panel at Sock Summit! One of my favorite things about Sock Summit!!


I think these two fabulous women enjoyed the Luminary Panel too!


Some amazing women to hear speak!


Christy did her first cable EVER while listening to the Luminary Panel.


And look at her progress by the end! She finished this hat lickety-split...go see!


I worked on a Cotty sock in Miss Babs Yummy Sport during the Luminary Panel.


Then it was time for the goodbye hugs! I miss these two already!


And there are no words for how amazing this woman is!


I finally finished those Cotty socks this week. Its been a long week...adjusting back to the real world, catching up on sleep, etc. Not even much time to knit!


I do love this Yummy Sport yarn! Thank goodness I picked up another skein at Sock Summit!


Miss Babs Yummy Sport, colorway Sand


Well, make that two skeins. The other is the yummy fingering in Miss Babs Dye for Glory colorway, Timberline (should be available at Woolgirl soon!).

Hope you all had a fabulous weekend! I spent the weekend with my brother and lil' guy...so come back tomorrow for some fun pictures!!

Happy Knitting!
xoxo Irishgirlieknits

Sock Summit....The Classes!

First, thank goodness for blogland. I don't think I would have survived this week of post-Sock Summit blues without everyone's fabulous pictures and stories from Sock Summit! It was such an amazing event, its hard coming back down to earth!

I took two classes and a one-hour lecture while at Sock Summit! I loved every minute of all of them. On Thursday, my one-hour Turkish Stitches class with Anna Zilboorg was just awesome! Such an incredible woman (I wish I had thought to take more pictures of some of the fabulous teachers...I'll blame the yarn fumes for not doing so). And quite interesting to learn about Turkish Stitches and colorwork. Then Friday morning I had Colorful Stitches with Tina Newton and Anna Zilboorg. I was just glowy all day from the information!


Plus I got to hang out with Stacey and Cristi!




Believe it or not, this little swatch represents the first time I have knit with four different colors of individual yarns! Crazy, I know! One thing I took away from all of my classes was to be a bit more adventurous and more confident in my knitting! My Sunday class with Amy Singer about how to design the next monkey sock was so exciting and inspiring!


Back to my Friday class, our class did get quite colorful too! I'm hoping our dear yarn harlot will retell the events of this class in a perfect way that I just can't, but there were definitely some men at Sock Summit! You may have heard that one of our classmates had an awful incident with her straight knitting needle and had to be rushed to the hospital (thank goodness she is okay and has had such great humor about the incident over on ravelry).


Let's just say that bolt cutters were involved.


Seriously. Only at a knitting convention!

Happy almost Friday!!
xoxo Irishgirlieknits

Sock Summit....The Friends!

Another favorite part of Sock Summit, the friends!!! It was awesome to finally meet some people whose blogs I've been reading for years like Stacey and Turtlegirl!!


picture shamelessly stolen from Turtlegirl's blog! So great to meet you Cristi!!


Stormy was looking fabulous at the Sock Hop!


My favorite Portland LYS, Twisted, now has the cutest little baby model! So glad to meet Hazel and I just love her mommy, Shannon!


Christy and I setting a world record!!! (that's right Christy, I linked to your blog in the hopes that you get back to it!!)


My SnB peeps! Cupcakefaerie (the best roomie ever!!), me, Ilikecake, and SnBLeslie!

My one regret is not having more time to spend with everyone and to take more pictures!! But I have the best memories from this weekend!!!

Oh, and I bought some new friends for my stash.....


Socks that Rock Rare Gems!!




This Rare Gem is probably my favorite yarn purchase from Sock Summit!!! Just perfect!

Happy Sock Summit Recovery Week!
xoxo Irishgirlieknits

Sock Summit....The Goodies!

I'm home! Sock Summit was absolutely amazing!! I am still on a yarn and knitty friend high (well, a bit exhausted too!!). One of the best parts for me was getting to spend so much time with my BFF (aka Debbi or ST-2 or Cockeyed)! She and Debra coordinated all of the vendors and the marketplace information booth and all of the fabulous daily drawings, and so much more! And I loved helping them during setup and in between my classes!!

One of the fun parts was helping to check in the daily drawings donations. The vendors were so amazing!! There were TONS of prizes!! That's how I discovered two of my favorites from the marketplace....Queen Bee Creations and Kitchen Sink Dyeworks!



Look at our cute BFF purses from Queen Bee!!! I heart mine so much Debbi!! Thank you!!



I certainly had a blue theme going! Another cute bag from Good to Be Girl and gorgeous gorgeous yarn from Kitchen Sink Dyeworks.


Kitchen Sink Dyeworks, Luxe Merino Fine fingering sock (80% merino, 10% cashmere, 10% nylon), colorway Meg


My new stuff was put to good use right away! And yes, that's another Cotty sock on the needles! I was thrilled that so many people showed me their Cotty socks at the Sock Summit! I wish I had thought to take a picture of them all! It really made my day whenever someone commented on how they loved their Cotty socks or were working on a pair!!

There were a lot more goodies, but I'm going to spread sock summit out a bit over the next week or so! That way I won't miss it so much!!

Happy Knitting!
xoxo Irishgirlieknits

Sock Summit....Day One!

I'm a bit tired already but the first official day of Sock Summit ROCKED!!! Well, with these ladies running it, how could it not?



Before I jump into Sock Summit, I have to share the note that Christy's daughter left under my door last night.


Seriously cute??!!! I had a great few days relaxing and visiting with Christy and the kids before Sock Summit!


Yesterday and today I helped with Vendor Registration! Fun stuff....got to check in the daily door prizes (lots and lots of awesome giveaways!!!), help with the silent auction, etc.


But especially fun was hanging out with ST-2! This is them smiling before the marketplace doors opened to the students!


Here's the line forming....open open open!


I finally finally got to meet Stacey!!! And Turtlegirl too (hope she has a cute picture of us! I still need to get one!). Lots of other knitty friends too but the camera wasn't around!

I hope to have more pictures later! Having a blast! Oh, the yarn....its all gorgeous, but one of my new favorites is here! I got two of her merino/cashmere/nylon base yarns...yummy!!

Happy Sock Summit!!!
xoxo Irishgirlieknits