April Favorites

April favorites, in no particular order.

{favorite recipes}


Tiny Strawberry Cream Scones

Pistachio Crusted Asparagus with Feta

and this one may become a May favorite once I try it.

{favorite books}


An excellent read.



Technically this is a March favorite. I absolutely loved this book, and the audiobook was fantastic! I couldn't stop listening to it. If you haven't read this one, put it on your list. And if you have read it, and enjoyed it, any others you'd recommend?

{favorite TV}


Game of Thrones!!! 

Bletchley Circle is back. And Orphan Black.

{favorite places}





The Inn at Port Ludlow, WA







High Tea at The Rotunda in San Francisco. A fun spring break afternoon last week with the family! It was just lovely.

{favorite yarns}



black trillium gradient sets

Addicting.



Bare Naked Wools Stone Soup DK. It is beyond lovely to knit with. I had to put the hat down to finish a few projects, but hoping to make some serious progress on it this weekend.


So there you go. A few of my favorites this past month. I can't wait to hear what have been some of your favorites this month. Please share!

Happy Knitting!
xoxo Irishgirlieknits

Blessings

Happy Easter! My weekend was filled with lots of family and fun.





These two just make me smile so much. I'm a very blessed auntie.



We had a lovely Easter brunch this morning. I made  a goat cheese, asparagus, and green onion frittata, a fruit salad, and.....



buttermilk drop biscuits. Everyone raved about the biscuits, a recipe I love from Jennifer Perillo's Homemade with Love: Simple Scratch Cooking from In Jennie's Kitchen

Bailey and I both took a nap this afternoon....all this fun = tired. It was perfect. I hope you all had a lovely weekend too! 

Happy Easter!

xoxo Irishgirlieknits

A little bit of perfect.

That's how the weekend has been so far. I'm in Port Ludlow for a girls weekend and a knitting retreat and I'm definitely savoring each moment.

We flew in early Friday morning to Seattle and our first stop was Churchmouse Yarns & Teas on Bainbridge Island. Such a lovely store.





Then we just had to get Mora's Ice Cream.  Goodness, the Bailey's ice cream was delicious.



The sun was shining in Port Ludlow when we arrived and it has been here the entire weekend. So lovely!









Seriously. Sun, water, knitting, friends, relaxing. Life doesn't get much better.

I hope you all had a perfect weekend too.

Happy Knitting!
xoxo Irishgirlieknits

p.s. I'm having a bit of a vacation pattern sale....all IGK patterns and ebooks are 20% off with the coupon code: portludlow through April 21, 2014.

10 Happy Things.

1. Lil' Guy turned 7 last week! He is such a fun kid and I still can't believe he is already 7!! Happy birthday bubby! Your auntie loves you so much!



2. Keeping with tradition, my sister-in-law made a spectacular birthday cake for him!





3. These gradient colors from Black Trillium. Just lovely.



4. These scones.



My favorite scone recipe is a cream-based one and quite similar, so I knew I would love the combo of strawberries and white chocolate. I can't wait to make these again.

5. Another trip to Brenda's. So good. Now I need to go for brunch I think.







6.  Surprise love notes.



7. Plain vanilla socks.



8. This sweet girl.



She's sitting up now. Growing soooooo fast.



Check out her Owlet sweater that auntie made her.

9. I'm going on vacation!!! Girls weekend! (downside.... I need to be up at an ungodly hour, and here I am blogging because I can't sleep)

10. This will be my view for the next few days. I can't wait!!!

So what happy has been filling your days? Hopefully lots of things. At least it is Friday, right?!

Happy Friday!!
 xoxo Irishgirlieknits

Spring Awakening

It's not just one of my favorite musicals.



Which by the way is going to be made into a movie.

It's this time of year where it is so nice to sit knitting at a softball game at 7pm, but still be a bit chilly. April showers, spring flowers. A bit more daylight. A bit more energy.

And with the transition of the seasons, you also need those transitional knits....cowls, scarves, hats. I've got a few new ones to share with you!

Sluggy





Designed with the lovely Shalimar Yarns Homage DK, this hat was originally designed to celebrate ShaliMarch. But what the heck, we can still knit with Shalimar in April, right?



My favorite thing about this design is that it looks great on the whole family.



Lil' Snowboarder is modeling the same hat as her dad, but it has a slouchier fit on her. I think he wants another knit in the large size too now.





Awwww....little Magpie looks so sweet in her hat, don't you think? I know, I know. I'm a biased auntie.


 Her hat is knit with Big Bad Wool's Weepaca yarn. This yarn is Ah-mazing! I just love how soft it is.


Notes: Instructions are written for a multiple-sized, slouchy hat. If a slouchier hat is preferred, you can either work the body of hat until desired length or go up a needle size for the body of hat. Modifications will require more yardage. Charts are provided.

                                                                                                              

Suggested Yarns: ~95 (140, 170, 200) yards of dk/light worsted weight yarn such as Shalimar Yarns Homage DK, Big Bad Wool Weepaca, The Plucky Knitter Bello Worsted, Bare Naked Wools Stone Soup DK

I can't wait to knit another one of these for me!

FYI, Sluggy is on sale through April 15, for $5.00 and then will retail for $6.00 

The other design available this week is Seamus.





A special thank you to Disco who knit this sample up quickly in the new Bare Naked Wools Confection. I'll admit, I was a bit jealous she was able to knit with this lovely yarn. But at least I get to wear this lovely infinity scarf. I just love this combination of cables and yarn.



I knit the smaller cowl version with one skein of A Verb for Keeping Warm Pioneer. Another lovely, gorgeous yarn.

This cabled infinity scarf or cowl is the perfect beginner project for learning cables, as there are only five rounds of cables. It is also perfect to show off that special skein you’ve wanted to cast on. Cables and worsted weight yarn makes this a quick knit!

Pattern Notes: Instructions are written for two sizes, a cowl and an infinity scarf, knit in the round. Written for cowl with instructions for infinity scarf given in parentheses if different. Charts are provided on the back page.

Suggested Yarns: 165 (370) yards of heavy worsted weight yarn such as Bare Naked Wools Confection, Anzula For Better or Worsted, A Verb for Keeping Warm Pioneer, Kolláge Yarns Fantastic, The Plucky Knitter Rustic, Brooklyn Tweed Shelter

 



Jill Zielinski, aka Knitterella, did an excellent job on the photo shoot (isn't her cousin Dani gorgeous?!!). Thanks Jill! I feel for her a bit with all that snow though.

Seamus is also on sale through April 15 for $5.00 (then retails for $6.00).

I also released Snow Plants this week, the shawl I designed for A Verb for Keeping Warm's Pro-Verbial Club. I'll be blogging more about this pattern, but did want to let you know it is available and on sale!





It is definitely springtime with all of these new designs. Three in one week! When it rains, it pours.

A few more quick announcements....

If you are in the LA area this weekend, then hopefully you already know about the LA Yarn Crawl, April 3-6.



Please be sure to stop by Knit Culture Studio to see some of my designs that are there for a trunk show. I love that they've picked some of their favorite designs from a number of designers to put together a pretty amazing trunk show. Plus, check out this gorgeous design that Hilary, the Yarniad, designed for them this weekend. Gorgeous!

The other announcement is that the Irish Girlie Knits Ravelry Group has picked our next KAL. Wish I Might and any other Stripey IGK patterns! Come join us for the fun (oh, and there is a coupon code there too!).

And with that, I think I better get to bed. Phew. I'd love to hear how your spring has been going? Any exciting plans for the weekend?

Happy Friday!!Happy Spring!
xoxo Irishgirlieknits