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

Discoveries

Happy Friday! It has been such a lovely summer week here. So nice to sit on the patio at knit night, needles clicking away amidst the laughs, until the sun went down. I love the long summer days (well, until it is too hot and I dream of chilly fall evenings). I discovered a few things, some crafty, some not, that I wanted to share.

1. The return of the mojo. The pattern designing mojo to be specific.



I think perhaps I just needed to bring myself to a cafe for it to happen?!

2. Craftmas in July. Mary Heather and the other fun ravelry ladies have a great idea about crafting for the holidays in July, when we aren't up to our ears in holiday knitting. I may either get a head start on some Christmas gifts, or finally start on this cute advent calendar (so inspired by Knitterella's version) or these fabulous ornament kits that I bought last year and didn't get a chance to put together.

3. Wavelength by Knitterella. Perhaps this could be one of the gifts I knit in July.

I bought the pattern as soon as it was available because I just have to get over my colorwork fear. Don't get me wrong. I know colorwork isn't hard. I've taken a class on it and did a little of it in a baby project or two when I first learned to knit, but I haven't done it in so long, I think I have to just jump in a cast on.

4. Irish Pub Rock Station on Pandora is made of win. And makes me think of Erica!

5. Sunshine Yarns. Ok, not something I've discovered as I've loved Dani's colorways for quite awhile. I can't even say it is the new gradients I've discovered. Really, I've been trying to limit my yarn purchases for some time, but in the past few weeks, there have been a few I couldn't resist.







Pure lovely, right? I think these pretties may explain why the design mojo is back.

6. Cranford, a charming BBC series on Amazon Prime that Cupcakefaerie recommended. A few episodes in and I love it!

Any new discoveries lately? I'd love to hear! Hope you all have a fantastic weekends!





Happy Weekend!
xoxo Irishgirlieknits

Homemade Holidays

Thank you all so much for the extra big hug and love you left on my last post! I so appreciate it!

Now I'm not usually a fan of all the Christmas decorations out before Thanksgiving, but with Thanksgiving later this year, this past week I've been itching to put things out. I've also been wanting to watch Love Actually, but that tends to come after Thanksgiving too. However, I think I've held out long enough, right?

I'm definitely hoping to avoid the mall after Thanksgiving, so when I've been feeling well, I've tried to do a bit of holiday shopping here and there. Knitting is everywhere this time of year.....






I love these pom poms!! How fun!


Not technically a handknit item, but I LOVE these candles!


And this, well, I just loved it! I left it at Anthropologie though.

I'm hoping to do more of a handmade/homemade holidays this year, but you know I always think I can knit faster than I can. Or cook and bake faster than I can.  But it isn't quite December yet, so I'm hopeful and can be wistful that it will all magically happen.

I'd love to knit Herrington, the new cowl by the lovely Knitterella!

 

Photo copyright Knitterella

This version is knit out of the lovely Bare Naked Wools, Breakfast Blend Fingering. Isn't it stunning!??! I'm so tempted to join their KAL here.

Another pattern I recently purchased is Snawheid, from the talented Kate Davies.

 

photo used with permission from Kate Davies 

 

Is that not the perfect winter hat?!  I guess between this hat and Herrington, I'm itching to do some colorwork.

I've also purchased some lovely new yarns (oops....more retail therapy, but hey, at least it isn't a car like Dianne bought! haha! loved that comment Dianne) that just may become holiday gifts.





I'm in love with A Verb for Keeping Warm's Pioneer yarn! It is just so lovely! And in stock again!!





And these stunning gradient yarns from Black Trillium Fibre Studios. I've been drooling over all the Fiar's knit with these and just love them!

Also on my homemade list is some baking. I've loved every recipe from this cookbook (I was excited to see it at Anthropologie too!), so I can't wait to try some of the muffin ones and a few others for holiday cooking. If you aren't reading In Jennie's Kitchen, you really should. I love her and her blog! Raspberry croissant bread pudding....seriously?!?! Yum.\


Homemade with Love, by Jennifer Perillo

A little note about those Amazonlinks....I do receive a bit of commission on any purchases that are clicked through from my blog from Amazon. Just something to keep in mind as you do your holiday shopping :)  Same with those Craftsy links too :)

Oh, and in case you missed it, I'm having a little thank you sale for you guys. So from now through 11:59pm PST on Monday evening, I'm offering you guys a coupon code for 50% off any of my IGK patterns that are $6.00 or less! Time for gift knitting right!  Coupon code: grateful

Happy Knitting!
xoxo Irishgirlieknits

TNNA and Friends

I still can't believe that just a week ago I was at TNNA having an exhaustingly great time! Time seems to fly when I'm with my knitting friends.  TNNA was great to be able to see friends that I don't get to see very often and meet friends that I've only talked to online.



First, I was so lucky to be paired up with Hilary Smith Callis, aka The Yarniad (you know, of Citron fame!). We both have the same wholesale distributor, Deep South Fibers, which is why we were able to share a booth (one-stop shopping!). Both of us are bay area girls and had met a few times at Nine Rubies Designer events, so it was nice to hang out together over the weekend. I just love her one of her new designs, Glacierre!



And look, Hilary was one of the featured designers in Knit Scene magazine!



Knitterella is also distributed by Deep South Fibers and her booth was just perfect! I so love Jill's sense of style, which I think makes working with her so easy!  Here she is modeling next to the big poster of my San Mateo pattern!



The nice part about having a booth at TNNA is that lots of people stop by to say hi! Thank you to everyone who came by to say hi!!



The Yarnover Truck girls stopped by!! I was so excited to see that they won the TNNA Business Innovation Award! Well-deserved! I'm hoping IGK patterns will be coming soon to the truck :)



Lara, of Lara Smoot Designs, and I have been blogging friends for quite some time so it was so nice to finally meet her and her lovely husband Andy! I can't wait to show you the pretty Shalimar Yarns that Lara gave me...gorgeous!!!!



The lovely Allyson from The Sweat Shop of Love came by to say hi too! I'm so glad she did because she is super sweet and oh so nice and a college football fan! And she went to Michigan too?! haha.... We promised to be great friends 360 days out of the year....except when Michigan and Notre Dame football intersect! Go Irish!!



It was so great to give Sheri of The Loopy Ewe a big, big hug! She has been so supportive of my designs- I still think Summer Wind was so successful so quickly because she blogged about it over and over!!



Melynda of French Press Knits, another Deep South Designer, stopped by to say hi too! 

Across from my booth was the fabulous Wooly Wormhead! Here's group shot of us with Donna, the fabulous lady behind Deep South Fibers!



I was able to get out of my booth a bit too! I was so excited to see everyone loving Knitted Wit's gorgeous colors!!  Fickleknitter took this picture of us but I forgot to take a picture with her! You guys, my very first TNNA a few years ago, Michele was sooooo supportive of me as a newbie designer and I am so grateful for her advice throughout the years. If you aren't familiar with her designs (I'm sure you are) or if you haven't looked at them lately, check. them. out. To. die. for!





Since I drove down to Columbus from Detroit with Erica and her mom and baby knitspot, I was thrilled to see the Knitspot booth was also right across from the IGK booth! You guys know I'm a huge fan of Anne Hanson and her designs- I loved seeing her booth and all of the lovely knits!



You may notice that her pattern posters look similar to mine. Well, Monday before TNNA (that is you know, just 4 days before set up, and 2 days before I was leaving) I was talking to Erica about how I loved Anne's poster at their Squam pop-up shop and how I wished I had something like that for TNNA. She then tells me about Drew from Lovan Enterprises, a printer who did that for Anne and that he was super fast. Which led to me having a few very last minute posters made up and delivered by my favorite honeybadger, Anne! That Erica, she comes through for me all the time! And Anne too! Thanks ladies! I had such a great time hanging out with you guys. Oh, and in case you guys wanted to know, Erica and Anne were also my fashion consultants throughout the weekend...thank goodness for them!



I was also able to see a sneak peek of one of the yarns for Anne's Fall in Full Color club! Wow, it is gorgeous!! I'm going to be doing a blog interview with the knitspot crew this next week, so if there are any questions you have for them about the Fall in Full Color club (or I guess any other knitspot questions) please leave me a comment. I'll also pick one lucky commenter who has a question to win a knitspot pattern of their choice (up to $8.00 value...my treat!).  Check out her newly released Scottish Reel (so pretty!). Remember to leave an email or ravelry id so I can contact you if you win.

You know, when I look at all these pictures, I realize why it has taken me a few days to recover from TNNA....a whirlwind of fun!!

Quick reminder, Wish I Might and Falling Leaves, my two new shawl designs, are on sale for $4.75 through July 8!  And thank you for all the love for Wish I Might...it has been hanging out in the Ravelry Top 20 Hot Right Now patterns since yesterday!! Yay!!!

Hope you all are having a great weekend!! It is hot hot hot hot here, so I'm sitting by the fan knitting today!!

Happy Knitting!
xoxo Irishgirlieknits

TNNA and Anzula

My new design, Wish I Might, was a huge success at TNNA and I'm so glad that Anzula asked me to collaborate with them and design with their new yarn, Nebula. The new yarn has a perfect amount of sparkle to it, and based on all the orders they received for Nebula at the show, sparkle is definitely in this fall! The yarn and pattern were sold as a kit at Sample It on Friday night, and it sold out, twice!



I featured the shawl right at the front of my IGK booth and it seemed like every yarn store owner that stopped by the booth commented on how they just ordered the yarn, so of course they needed the pattern. Sounded good to me! I'm so excited to see my patterns in more yarn stores!



Here's the lovely Sabrina, the creative genius and dyer behind Anzula! We had such a good time collaborating that we have lots planned for future IGK designs! Let's just say I came home with a lot of Anzula yarns for new designs. Check out the three skeins of Sebastian that I couldn't resist (pretty pretty, right?!).



Look at that rainbow of gorgeous colors!



Jill has her hands full with some Anzula yarns too! You may recall that Jill's lovely Chevron Stripe infinity was designed with Sebastian....so pretty! You can see it in Jill's TNNA recap here too.





Jill did such a lovely job modeling in these photos! Her and Alisa make such a great team! If you are a designer in need of a fabulous photographer and model, Jill is the one to contact. Thanks Jill and Alisa!

Wish I Might  

Star light, star bright. First star I see tonight. I wish I may. I wish I might. Have this wish I wish tonight. 

Inspired by the sparkle in Anzula’s Nebula yarn, this shawl dazzles with a star bright edging. A perfect shawl to wear on a chilly evening, while wishing on a star.

Note: Instructions are written for a top-down shawl in two sizes.  Both charted and written instructions are provided for the lace edging.

Suggested Yarns: ~ 560 (650) yards total of fingering weight yarn or for 2-colors ~300 (350) yards (MC) and 260 (300) yards (CC) of fingering weight yarn such as Anzula Nebula or Anzula Squishy or Anzula Sebastian

Finished measurements: 49” (56”) wide and 23 1/2” (28”) long at center points, after blocking; note that the size may vary depending on the fiber content of the yarn and how rigorously the shawl is blocked

The pattern is on sale for $4.75 from now through July 8, 2013 (then it will retail for $6.00).  

If you haven't had a chance to knit with Anzula's gorgeous hand-dyed yarns, don't wait any longer! Check them out at your LYS or these yarn stores online. I can't wait to show you some of the pretties I took home with me from TNNA!

Thank you Sabrina and your fabulous team for all of your support and making this collaboration so fun!!

Happy Knitting!
xoxo Irishgirlieknits