A Bit of Catch-Up!

What a busy few weeks this has been?!  Let's catch-up a bit, shall we?

1. Did you watch the Royal Wedding?  I did.  Loved it.  Love, love, loved it.

2. Have you seen Woolgirl's April Sock Club Kit yet?  If you don't want to be spoiled, look away around #5.

3. Sock Summit registration begins on Wednesday, May 4!!  I'm hoping to maybe get a class or two, in addition to my own!!!!!

4.  I drove Mimi back home to Reno this weekend.  Not such a fun drive when I have a horrible migraine/sinus headache.  So I treated myself today to a trip to Jimmy Beans Wool.  Love that store, but really try not to stop at it every time I'm in Reno. I don't need yarn, remember.  But, in honor of Madelinetosh May, I bought a little something today.




Two skeins of Madelinetosh Prairie in colorway Cove

5. Woolgirl's April Sock Club shipment arrived earlier this week and I heart everything about it!

Two awesome patterns, and yes, I may be biased because one of them is mine!  When Woolgirl asked me to design something for her Favorite Things/Raindrops on Roses themed kit, I jumped at the chance.  Especially when she told me about the yarn!  I absolutely loved knitting with Stricken Smitten's yarn....the color is just stunning!

Raindrops on Roses Shawlette, by Irishgirlieknits

feel free to favorite it, but it won't be available to the public until June 2012!  But you might be able to score one in the Woolgirl's Sock Club Forum on Ravelry here

6. Podcasts.  I've finally discovered the joy of knitting podcasts.  Don't ask me what took so long?!  Current faves include FiberBeat, Knitmore Girls, SavvyGirls.....any others you'd recommend?

7.  You know that sneak peek I showed you the other day?  I'm so excited to share it with you this week.  Miss Babs will be selling the pattern in her shop at Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival next weekend!  This will be the first (of hopefully many more!) pattern that I will be wholesaling and I thought a bit of a professional pattern layout was needed.  Knitterella to the rescue!  I'll tell you more about the pattern in my next post, but today, I have to share a picture of the new pattern layout.

I love it!  Working with Jill has made my designing job so much easier!  We will gradually be moving many of my patterns over to this new layout as I hope to start expanding my wholesale accounts!

8.  I have barely knit a stitch this week!  Tends to happen when I finish a new design.  I have another design in the works, just haven't cast on yet.  So let me live vicariously through you guys for a moment....what are you knitting?  What project can you just not put down?  Do tell :)

Happy Knitting!!
xoxo Irishgirlieknits

Sneak Peek!

Coming Soon!

Maryanne, a new IGK pattern featuring Miss Babs Yarns Windsor Sock Yarn, colorway Forever

Happy almost Friday!

xoxo Irishgirlieknits

Happy Easter!

Wishing you all a fabulous day!

From Bailey,

Puddles, 

 and CutiePatootie!!  My bestest friend in the whole wide world's 6-month baby boy!

Auntie IGK hasn't done the best job when it comes to the knitting, but when he sends me a text saying, "Auntie IGK, my head is 17" around.  Love, CutiePatootie,"  well, let's just say I got my needles moving!

 I think he looks pretty darn cute in his new bunny hat!

 I didn't even realize how perfectly it would match the vest I made for him!

And the Easter Bunny brought me something special too!
(warning: Spoiler Alert for Woolgirl's Victorian Writer's Club)

Swoon! Swoon! Swoon!  The theme was Little Women, one of my favorite books, and once again, Woolgirl has done an amazing job!  The gorgeous yarn is from The Plucky Knitter (you all know I love Sarah's yarns!!) and the stunning pattern is by Sivia Harding. 

Such a fabulous Easter bunny gift!  Thank you Woolgirl!!

Happy, happy Easter!
xoxo Irishgirlieknits

{this moment}

{this moment} A Friday ritual. A single photo (oops...maybe a few more this week) - no words - capturing a moment from the week (or in this case, the past month). A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you're inspired to do the same, visit SouleMama leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

A sock camp morning dyeing yarn with DepravedDyer and Anna Zilboorg just can't be beat! 

Happy Good Friday!

xoxo Irishgirlieknits

Finally

1. Finally.....a moment to blog.

2. Finally....it is almost the weekend! More importantly, a weekend at home.  Monterey, then Sock Camp, then Disneyland, then a quick trip this past weekend to Reno to bring Mimi home to the bay area for a few weeks...equals lots of fun but one tired Irishgirlie.  So excited to be home this weekend to just knit!  And dye some Easter eggs.  And eat a cadbury egg or two :)


My new sock design, in Miss Babs Windsor Sock Yarn.  A bit of knitting progress while my sister drove through the mountains!

3.  Finally, the Sock Summit teachers list is available!  The secret is out! That Carrie Sullivan you see on the list is me!!  I'm beyond excited and totally humbled (and a bit freaked out to be honest) to be included amongst those 60 awesome teachers!  I'll be teaching my Dead Sexy Heels class, and hoping to take a few of those other fantastic classes!  And shopping in the marketplace too!

4.  Finally, I finished my Fightin' Irish Cotty socks.  I'm in love with these socks.  Who knew handspun socks would be such a treat for my feet?!  Well, ilikecake knew.  Not only did she spin this yarn for me, but she strongly encouraged them to become Cotty socks, and I'm so glad I listened.  The fiber was from All Spun Up, and is a merino/silk blend.  Thank you, thank you Thayer!!







5.  Finally, I have succumbed to the spinning bug.  I tried really, really hard to resist.  And I waited until I figured out how to not stash fiber like it was going out of style.  I was worried when I was gifted handspun.  It was inevitable once I began knitting with it. 


spun on my drop spindle at sock camp

Finally sitting down at a wheel at Sock Camp has me itching to practice on my wheel (not sure if I officially told you I got a wheel? That is a fun story....I'll take pictures of Sleeping Beauty soon! Oh, and yes, I named her. Thought everyone named their wheels. I don't think they do. Oh well.). I've just needed a weekend at home to do so...

finally....

Happy Almost Weekend!
xoxo Irishgirlieknits

{this moment}

{this moment} A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you're inspired to do the same, visit SouleMama leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

Happy Friday! Make a wish upon a star!

xoxo Irishgirlieknits

I promised.

Knitting content.  Crazy, huh?  We certainly have some catching up to do.  So here goes.

1. Toast.  I changed it up from my gazillion pairs of Toasties and skipped the thumb hole.  I wanted something super, super easy to knit on during movies or when I couldn't work on secret knitting.




The awesome mug is a gift from Erica! Love!

These were started back in January after the Plucky Knitter Event, and they were finished right before Sock Camp.  Goodness gracious!  Forever!  But then I did have a lot of secret knitting in February and March.  And I must say something about Sarah's cashmere yarns.  Heavenly! I love love love her cashmere and must cast on another project soon!

2.  Speaking of secret knitting, did you all see the new shipment from the Rockin' Sock Club?!  Not only does it feature an awesome pattern by our favorite Neuroknitter, but it also featured my new pattern, Merry Socksters! 

I snapped a few quick photos before I sent the sample off to the Depraved Dyer!







The brightly colored yarn was named Electric Koolaid Acid Test, and it definitely needed an easy-to-knit pattern that could stand out against the bright colors.  The sample was knit in the large size, but when I was designing the pattern, I just had to first knit it up in the medium size because that is usually where I get to see that pretty striping that I just love with STR!  Here's another look but in the Cattywampus colorway.




And of course, I need to knit myself a pair now!  I thought I'd make a bit more progress at both sock camp and Disneyland, but um....I didn't! 


Overlooking New Orleans Square.


Going for a ride on the teacups.

I can't believe I forgot to pull the sock out during our princess breakfast!  Oh well!  Merry Socksters is exclusive to the Rockin' Sock Club this year, but will be available to the general public in March 2012!  I was thrilled to be a designer again for this club that I have loved being a part of for the past 5 years!

3.  I would love to see Merry Socksters knit up in our new sock camp colorway, Mad Hatter.



But, alas, I'm on to my next design, so that won't be happening soon.

4.  I love this designing things, but I'm trying to figure out how I can do that, and knit all of the other fabulous patterns out there.  Like this.  Or the mystery sock that Knittinggolfer has designed for the Solid Socks Group on ravelry.  Or the Smocked Slouch Hat kit that I ordered from the Plucky Knitter.  Better yet, maybe I'd have time to jump into the first KAL in our Irishgirlieknits Group on Ravelry for Sweet Home (I'm hoping too! Oh, and Sweet Home is on sale until the end of April for $4.)!  I might join in the Sunshine Yarnies Lace KAL as well!  A few in the group are planning to knit Cotty socks (hint hint: coupon code: sunshine for 20% off Cotty through April 17) and I have the perfect skein to knit...


Sunshine Yarns Luxury Sport, colorway Patronus

Oh, so many patterns, so little time..

So what do you all have on your needles? What are you wishing for more time to cast on? Do tell....

Happy Knitting!
xoxo Irishgirlieknits

The Happiest Place on Earth

Sock camp to Disneyland!

The Alice in Wonderland theme continued!

From one happiest place to another!  A quick weekend trip to Disneyland was absolutely perfect!

I thought I'd share a few fun pictures from our trip!

Awesome view from our room.

Breakfast with the princesses!

Couldn't resist the ears!

We had a great time, but I'll admit, between sock camp and Disneyland, not much knitting has been happening!  Must remedy that soon!

I do have a few finished projects that I just haven't had a chance to share that I'll blog about this week!

Happy Knitting!

xoxo Irishgirlieknits

{this moment}

{this moment} A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you're inspired to do the same, visit SouleMama leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

Happy Friday Honey Badgers!

Surviving Sock Camp

It sounds like a vacation.





It looks like it may be a relaxing, peaceful week of knitting.

But it is not.

It is more like boot camp.

Where the requirements involve knitting, yarn, silliness, late nights, bacon at breakfast every day, classes, dessert with every meal, awesome awesome people, honey badgers, Twilight and Glee watching, and laughing with some of my best friends.







I'm still recovering from the week.

Seriously.

Where else do you get to play Knitting Jeopardy?



Or Knitting Boggle?



Or claim to proudly be a Jubjub all week?

Where learning to spin involves hula-hooping?



And Anna Zilboorg literally teaches you to spin? Or in my case, attempts to teach me to spin :)





There was a tea party.



And silly hats.











And some things which are better left unexplained.








Sock camp. Boot camp. No matter what you call it, it was amazing!

A bit like being in Wonderland!

Happy happy sock camping!
xoxo Irishgirlieknits