Blog Love

Let's celebrate the last of our blogiversary sales with a fun one! These seven patterns are 50% off from now until Monday, Dec. 21, 11:59pm PST, with the coupon code: BLOGLOVE.



(top: left to right) Fiar, Peek-a-boo Penelope, Kenmare Lace Hat, Ballydesmond, Wish I Might, Naylor Street, and Golden State.

A few of my favorites and a few of this year's new ones! A little something for everyone.

Happy Knitting!!
xoxo Irishgirlieknits

Comfort & Joy

Happy Happy Blogiversary!

I can't believe that 9 years has passed. I met Irish Girlie through our local Knit Nite (I've met the best people that way) and have enjoyed being part of her posse as she discovered and shared her wonderful design skills. The picture above is from our 2009 trip to Port Ludlow and my first Sock Camp so so long ago. So much knitting, food, and fun.

It didn't take long for IGK Designs to start going gangbusters and I got to take pictures of the gorgeous designs usually with the stunning Thayer to model.

 

Miss you so much Thayer!
The shoot for the Comfort Food  mitts and cowl set was a blast and just looking at the pictures makes me want to head to a cafe for some comforting hot chocolate.

I love how a soft chunky yarn makes them feel like a warm hug. Especially if you do them in a luxurious Plucky Knitter yarn like the ones above.

The pattern of cables is so easy to memorize that I chose it to accompany me to Italy last year.

So many good memories come back whenever I slip these on.

Comfort Food mitts knit in Neighborhood Fiber Co. Studio Chunky

This pattern has become my go-to holiday knit. And paired with the cowl or separately, they are sure to be treasured by anyone who receives them. The pattern is 50% off from now until Dec. 13, 11:59pm PST.

Be sure to check out what other IGK designs are popular gifts for the holidays over in the Irish Girlie Ravelry Group December KAL So much loveliness to choose from.


Pattern: Comfort Food  

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A Note from Irishgirlie~~ CONTEST TIME & MORE SALE PATTERNS

Since it is the weekend, let's celebrate with a contest and a few other patterns on sale. First, Tricia mentions that Comfort Food is one of her go-to holiday gifts. What are your go-to holiday gifts this year? They can be knitting related or not...leave you suggestion in the comments and you'll be entered to win an IGK pattern of your choice and a few Knitterella gift tags and cards that I'll put in the mail to you next week!

Gift knits for the babies in your life....Sweet Baby Kate and Dear Baby Francis are both 50% off this weekend, until Dec. 13, 11:59pm PST with Comfort Food.





And one of my favorite go-to knits from last year, Sorin and Sorin Fingerless Gloves, also on sale this weekend!

Have a great weekend!! More blogiversary fun next week!

Happy Knitting!

xoxo Irishgirlieknits & Tricia aka CheekyAttitude

Giftalong

Happy December!! Are you guys all working on your holiday knitting? Or are you opting for a little less stress this year...hahaha! I'm busy working on a design deadline but I'm still hoping to get a few holiday gifts in. We'll see.

I can't believe this will be my 9th year of blogging! Happy blogiversary month! We've got a few fun things planned in the next few weeks for you. To kick it off, I thought we'd have a guest post! Erica is going to talk a little about some of her favorite designs she's seen over in the Indie Design Gift-A-Long. I'm so excited to be one of the Designers participating this year! And be sure to read to the end....we're starting blogiversary month off with some fun!!
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Tick tock, tick tock...19 days left until Christmas. Can you believe it? I can't! I bet you want to knit a couple things and get them under the tree or in a stocking. Me too. I went searching through the Indie Design Gift-A-Long designs and thought I'd share my discoveries.

Mikkey by Lee Meredith



A chunky cowl using slip stitches, one of my favorite techniques for working with color that is deceptively simple with a super cool result. Imagine how striking it would be in black and white!

Snowy Woods Cowl by Michele Bernstein



I love the reverse stockinette design, leaving the tree branches highly visible. Fun, quick knit in Aran weight.

Faro by Jen Lucas



Slip stitches. Stripes. Aran weight. What a fun and fast knit!

Owl in the Thicket by Sara Burch



Cables and lace, with beads or buttons to accentuate the owl's eyes. Too cute!

Bluet by Bonnie Sennott



Cables and lace? How could you go wrong?

X-Intercept by Star Athena



Knits and purls that spiral! Simple technique, yet a striking striped effect.

There are 335 designers participating in the Indie Giftalong, with several KALs to participate in with oodles of prizes. It's not too late to join in the fun (details here) and get some gift knitting started and finished by December 31. Speaking of KALs, our Q4 KAL has started and the theme is Gift Knitting! Join in the fun here and also double dip by entering your WIPs and FOs into both ravelry group contests. I have SO MANY Irish Girlie favorites, as you may have guessed, but I thought I'd highlight a few of my go-tos for gift knitting.

Seamus by Irishgirlieknits



I can't even remember how many of these I knit. So quick and so fun because the cables are easy, plus you have a ton of vacation rows in between. I recently knit one for Padraig in a tweed and he is obsessed with how squishy it is!

Alpine Lake by Irishgirlieknits



This textured cowl is a dream to knit and works up in a flash in bulky. The loop is easily doubled for a warmer cowl and I love that the striking stitch pattern is unisex. I loved the version I knit in a bulky single



and I'm going to stash dive to whip up another for a quick teacher gift.

Rathmore by Irishgirlieknits



I love this for a gift knit! Stripes and lace make this a unique and impressive knit, that definitely delights the recipient. I knit this as a gift for a friend, and I must admit that I was a little sad when the knitting was done. It was such a dream to work up!

So tell me, tell me! What's your favorite IGK pattern to gift? And, hey, why not come on over and join us in the Irish Girlie Ravelry Group December KAL which is all about gift knitting to tie in with the Indie Design GAL! See you there. - Erica

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We usually celebrate blogiversary month with some fabulous specials and this time is no different. For the next two weeks, I'll be picking a few favorite patterns, with a little help from Erica and Tricia aka Cheeky Attitude, and marking them down for 50% off for 2-days only! So you'll need to check back here frequently so you don't miss out!

Erica's post reminded me of an old favorite, Alpine Lake. It really does knit up quickly in Bulky. The pattern is easy to memorize too! Don't have any bulky yarn? Double up some worsted and you are good to go...go up a needle size maybe if you aren't getting gauge.

So, from now until Dec. 8, 11:59pm PST, Alpine Lake is 50%, just $3.00! No coupon necessary!


Happy Knitting!
xoxo Irishgirlieknits

Blogiversary Special #2: IGK Favorite Shawls

First, I'm so glad that so many of you took advantage of the blogiversary specials this past weekend! There's still time to enter the contest too.

I think you'll love this next group of patterns. I sure do. Take all those single skeins of sock yarn and bam: color color color! And if you aren't quite ready for that, there are one or two favorites that require just one of your favorite skeins.

From Dec. 9-11, the following IGK Favorite Shawl patterns are 50% off, NO COUPON NEEDED: 

Dancette

Glacier Point 

Honey Bunches

Raindrops on Roses

Wish I Might

This year's favorite has definitely been Glacier Point.

Shown here in Anzula Cloud, such a lovely yarn. You should also check out these lovely Plucky Knitter versions.

Which shawl is your favorite? Have you knit any of them already or have any of them planned for your January once the gift knitting is done?

We'll have one more group of patterns on Friday and they'll be perfect for last minute gift knitting and hopefully a new one for gift knitting too! 

Happy Knitting!

xoxo Irishgirlieknits

Beginning to look a lot like Christmas

It may not be decorated yet, but I love having the tree in the house.



Cranberry orange muffins. Now we are ready for the holidays. Something about cranberries just mean Christmas to me. Here's the recipe. And in a pinch I've used orange juice in that recipe and they still taste perfect :)



And some Christmas socks for me. I probably should be working on the gift knitting, but Saturday I was exhausted and needed some comfort knitting. My friends often tease me for having matchy-matchy project bags and yarn, but this yarn was specifically dyed to match this fabric! Yarn is from Canon Hand Dyes and I'm loving it!

Today is the last day to take advantage of the first blogiversary sale!



More details in the last post. I'm also loving your holiday traditions comments in the contest too! Still time to enter that too.

I hope your week is off to a good start. We'll be back tomorrow with the next group of patterns on sale!

Happy Knitting!
xoxo Irishgirlieknits

8 Years.

8 years of blogging! You guys rock for still stopping by this space- whether from the start, a few years ago, or just recently. It might be every few months, just to look at the pictures, it might be through a blog feeder (is that what they are called) or quickly on a break at work so I understand if the comments aren't as frequent. The main thing is that we have created this awesome knitting community through blogs, knitting, ravelry, twitter, instagram, LYS, retreats. You've become my friends, many in real life, and many more virtually. So thank you!!

The past few years we've celebrated here by putting some of my most popular patterns on sale for 50% off. This is the only time I do this, so please spread the word and take advantage! And since Tricia, aka Cheekyattitude, is on board this year as part of the IGK team and will be helping out, we are making this EXTRA fun! There will be three separate groups of patterns on sale over the next week or two, but they'll be a surprise. Plus we have some other fun things planned. It is the holiday season after all!

First up..... IGK Favorites: Accessories! All the patterns shown below are 50% through Dec. 8, NO COUPON NEEDED.



One of the most popular IGK designs this past year has been Fiar. It saw a revival this past year with the lovely gradient yarns, especially those of Black Trillium Fibres.





I also released a new sock pattern this year, Contorta, in the lovely Bare Naked Wools Breakfast Blend fingering. It had been awhile since I had designed a sock pattern so it was nice to see so many of you respond so positively to it. Thank you!



The Sleepy Hollow Collection, San Mateo,  and Cotty Socks are also on sale.



And of course, my most popular pattern by far, Summer Wind. This one and Cotty really jumpstarted my design career. But this infinity scarf (and San Mateo too) continue to be "potato chip" knitting! You can't knit just one. It also featured my fabulous duo of Thayer as my model and Tricia behind the camera, with one of my favorite yarns Plucky Knitter Primo.

Any of these would make great holiday gifts if you started now too. By the way, how is your holiday knitting going? Don't forget about our IGK fall/holiday KAL over on Ravelry. My holiday knitting is slow going while I finish prepping the new pattern that Tricia showed you in the last post. But our holiday celebrating did start last weekend with our annual trip to the Dickens' Fair.





Magpie is awake for tea this year!



And she didn't quite know what to make of Father Christmas.

Next on the holiday list is to get our Christmas tree this weekend. I'd love to hear how your holiday plans/knitting/merry-making is coming. Are you in the holiday spirit or is this time of year a harder time for you? If you don't particularly celebrate the holidays how is your December going? Any special knitting?

I did a little Black Friday shopping for you guys from Knitterella. Leave a comment sharing something about your holiday plans, traditions, knitting, etc. and one of you will win the prize below. And if you mention in the same comment that you'll spread the news about the contest or sale (e.g., twitter, instagram, ravelry, Facebook, on your blog) you'll be entered twice. Be sure to leave a way for us to contact you (e.g., rav id).



Oh, and one more sale I have to tell you about because you know I LOVE all things Knitted Wit. Lorajean's birthday is Sunday and she is celebrating with a birthday sale. Everything in her shop is 34% off with the coupon code: birthday34  More details here I'm definitely getting some Sassy Santa!!


Have a  great weekend!!
xoxo Irishgirlieknits

Blogiversary Bonanza!

I can't quite believe this blog has been going strong and we are now celebrating 7 years of blogging!! Thank you all so much for reading, commenting, cheering, laughing, and knitting along with me. You know I wouldn't be here without you!

For the past few years, we've celebrated the blogiversary with a different pattern at 50% off each day. But I'll be honest, I'm too sleepy to blog that much for the next week, so I hope you'll enjoy this option instead! I've picked 7 of my most popular patterns and marked them on sale until next Monday!  Easy-peasy :)



Summer Wind  San Mateo 

Wish I Might   Lilianna 
Cotty 
Honey Bunches Naylor Street


All of the above patterns are $3.00 until Monday, Dec. 16, 11:59pm PST (no coupon needed). After that they will go back to their regular price of $6.00.

With less than two weeks til Christmas, if you have a last minute gift to knit, I definitely suggest Naylor Street. With sizes that range from baby to adult, it'll work for anyone on that list! The little magpie loves hers!



She came over to hangout last night and we had a blast! 



Auntie selfie



Doggie photobomb



And lil' snowboarder photobomb :)

Enough of the cute baby, let's get back to that blogiversary! This is where the bonanza comes in....time for prizes!



I stocked up on some of my favorite knitting cards from Knitterella recently and I'll be sharing them with two lucky winners.

Four other winners will receive a digital copy of their choice of either The Woods Family Collection or The Sullivan Family Collection.

Another will receive a lovely skein of Plucky Knitter MCN Aran. I knit myself a Gobi Hat, from last year's Bare Naked Knits Club, with my skein and I love it!



Love it enough to post a make-up free selfie :)  By the way, thank you all for the awesome hat suggestions! I'll keep you posted on which one I pick next. I'm halfway through my treatments, the "bump" on my head is significantly smaller, and the pain is minimal... just exhausted. And my head is getting a bit itchy, as expected. They say the other side effects start in the next week or so. Anywho, I have a cute hat least.

So how do you win the above prizes? Just leave a comment below and a way to contact you if you win (e.g., rav id, email). And I love hearing about your holiday traditions, a link to your favorite treat you'll be baking, or what gift you are hoping Santa will bring you this year. I also love to hear which blogs you enjoy reading, or the book that you can't put down, or what movie is a must-see when I have time off!

Contest and sale are good through Monday December 16, 11:59pm PST.

Feel free to share, tweet, facebook, post, etc. about the blogiversary sale and contest! And thank you all again for being on this fabulous ride with me!!

Happy, happy knitting!!
xoxo Irishgirlieknits