September?!

Seriously? How did September get here so quickly? August may have kicked my butt, but September is going to be a great month! I just know it! Fall is almost here....yay!!!

And just two more days til Notre Dame Football begins!! Can't wait!

I have lots of projects to share with you (can someone say cast-on-itis?!), but have not been home during daylight hours! And I'm finishing up the Sweet Baby Cate pattern, so I'm hoping to release that soon. Until then...let's talk yarn!

Yes, there were a few yarn purchases at Stitches Midwest. All for "designs" I tell myself. Stop laughing.



First up, this gorgeous skein of Luxe Merino Fine from Kitchen Sink Dyeworks. I fell in love with her pretty yarns at Sock Summit and this skein just screamed my name the whole weekend! When there was just one left on Saturday, I couldn't resist any longer! I admit my weakness for that hint of cashmere.


Speaking of cashmere, another pretty! This was my first time seeing Dragonfly Fibers in person, and soooooo pretty! This skein of Djinni, in Blue Spruce, had to come home with me!


Then there was Miss Babs. Why oh why can't I resist her yarns?! I love them! And she had quite a few new colors that I tried to resist! The red is a gorgeous, intense colorway, Vlads, in her Yummy sport yarn. The two Yummy socks below are A Day at Red Lettuce Farm and Field Mouse (love love love!!)!



And then there was this one lonely skein of Madelinetosh Pashmina from WEBS. Again, the cashmere. Weakness.

Now I must knit.

Happy Knitting!
xoxo Irishgirlieknits

Was it just a week ago?

...that I was at STITCHES Midwest? Hard to believe. This week kicked my butt back into reality bigtime, so it is nice to be able to take a moment to relive last week's fun.

Hanging out in the Kollage Yarns' booth was so much fun!


On Friday, Kathy Zimmerman was demonstrating cables (see her cute scarf...yes, she whipped that up just a day or two before Stitches!).


Franklin Habit stopped by the booth Friday too. Of course, I missed that (I think I was doing some yarn shopping....)! Thanks Erica for letting me borrow the photo.



And here I am having Sandi Rosner sign my pattern of the Four Seasons Wrap. I fell in love with this at the fashion show!





Isn't it gorgeous?! And I think it would be a quick knit! Erica and I are thinking KAL....anyone else?



After the fashion show, SomeBunnysLove hosted the Pajama Party in the hotel lobby! So fun to just hang out and knit! Well, that is where I stayed until 3am trying to finish my Bellingrath for the next morning!



Benjamin had the cutest slippers I thought!

And then came Saturday, my meet and greet day! It was so fun meeting other knitters!







I especially loved meeting Molly (aka MHardersen on ravelry)! It is so nice to meet people who read the blog! I can't wait to see her Bellingrath knit out of Sock-a-licious Heather!

And yes, I know I need to show you some of my yummy yarn purchases....but I haven't been home this week when the sun was still out! So hopefully this weekend!

But, I can announce the winner of the Knitterella contest! Thank you for all the entries! The lucky winner is.....

GypsyKnits

Congratulations! Email me at irishgirlieknits AT gmail DOT com your address and I'll get the cards out to you next week! Thank you again Knitterella for donating the prize too.

I promise....yarn pictures and more contests soon! Until then..

Happy Weekend!

xoxo Irishgirlieknits

STITCHES Fun!

I have so much to share about Stitches Midwest, but I really need to catch up on sleep tonight before the reality of going back to work sets in, so I'm going to break this out over a couple of posts! There will be prizes though, so bear with me!

Friday was a fabulous day! My friends Thayer and Cheryl flew back to Chicago for a visit home and a day at Stitches Midwest! It was too fun having Thayer (my gorgeous model, btw!) there with the debut of Bellingrath.


We may have gotten a bit silly!


Susie, the fabulous woman behind Kollage Yarns, loved meeting her too!



Cheryl, me, Thayer, and Angela

Being from Chicago, Thayer and Cheryl insisted we have Portillos for lunch. And I'm so glad they did insist! Yummy!! It was delicious!


Their Italian Beef sandwich was soooooooooooo good! Thank goodness I don't live there!

After lunch it was back to shopping!



I loved Jennie the Potter's booth! Her yarn bowls, mugs, buttons, all of it are too cute and it was so nice to be able to hang out and chat with her for a bit too! Guess what?! She's planning to come to Stitches West next year! Start saving your pennies :) Or if you can't wait, she does have an Etsy shop.




I couldn't resist the necklace that matched my new Bellingrath just perfectly!



Erica, Melynda, Jill, and Allegra

Erica also introduced me to Melynda (of French Press Knits fame!), Jill (Knitterella fame!), and Allegra (from Petite Purls!). We all had so much fun and it was so nice to be able to talk to other knitters who are branching out in the industry side of knitting! Hanging out with them just made me more excited to keep up the designing! I even asked Jill if she would consider doing a proper logo for me (her graphics are fabulous....she did logos for Plucky Knitter and Through the Loops, just to name a few!).

And since I know you'll ask (I did!), Allegra's sweater is a Women's version of her adorable baby sweater Boheme and it is knit out of BMFA DeVine (love love love that yarn!). She's planning to release the pattern soon! I can't wait to knit it! Along with a pair of French Press slippers too! Seriously, my queue of patterns grew over the weekend!




Jill was kind enough to donate a few Knitterella cards and tags as a prize for one lucky winner too! I love her cards and tags (and she will have notepads soon too! I got one of those for me!). Just leave a comment and I'll pick a winner in the next few days!

And I've extended the sale on Sweet Home for a few more days :)

Now I need to go unpack. And wind some new yarn. Don't let this post fool you. There was definitely yarn shopping! I'll show you soon!

Happy knitting!
xoxo Irishgirlieknits

Favorites so far from STITCHES!

Wow! It has been a whirlwind few days here at Stitches Midwest! I have lots to tell you, but I need to get a few hours sleep (since last night was practically an all-nighter finishing my own Bellingrath to wear today!).

I have to share a few pictures from the Fashion Show last night because, well, it was awesome! Crazy fun! I haven't been to the Fashion Show before so I had no idea what to expect, and then to have my design in it, it was too much. These aren't even my pictures because mine came out too blurry (I'm pretty sure I was shaking!). Thanks Erica!

I should design something for a guy next year, don't you think?

I was so impressed with how they styled all the models for the show and have more fun pictures to share! Benjamin and the crew at XRX did a great job!

Bellingrath Shawlette, Kollage Yarns Sock-a-licious colorway Blue Mist (this one I get to keep!)

Today was my pattern signing! Another exciting day! My friend Jen and I finally met in person (Jen of Piddleloop fame is to blame for my knitting bag problem!). I met lots of people and tried to take lots of pictures.

More pictures to come! Thank you all again for being so supportive, especially the twitter comments today when I was a wee bit nervous I'd be alone in the booth :) Reminder that Sweet Home is on sale still!

Happy Stitches!!

xoxo Irishgirlieknits

Bellingrath

I've been to Alabama just once. Over 10 years ago, I was visiting my bestest friend in the whole world, who was living in Biloxi, Mississippi at the time. She suggested that instead of going to New Orleans again (I was thinking more along the lines of why wouldn't we go back to NOLA?), we should go to Mobile, Alabama for the day. And so we did. Little did we know that pretty much nothing would be open in Mobile on a summer weekend when almost everyone was at the coast instead. I was underwhelmed. However, on the drive back we stopped at the beautiful Bellingrath Gardens and it made the day worth it (well, almost. I remember still wishing for beignets). The gardens were beautiful!

This shawlette and sock design, Bellingrath, was inspired by both those lovely gardens and the perfect Blush color yarn, Sock-a-licious, from Kollage Yarns in Alabama.

Introducing Bellingrath......

















The shawlette. One skein, gotta love that!

And I just have to say, my model and photographer....LOVE THEM! I really have some of the best friends a knitter could have. Ilikecake (you may know her by her gorgeous sock designs) worked the runway (well, garden in this case) while Cheekyattitude worked her magic behind the camera (you can check out more shawlette pictures here).

The socks feature the same lace edging and panel. I'm pretty tickled with how that works :) They are modeled perfectly by Cupcakefaerie! Again, what would I do without my friends.

The best part is that these two great projects are available in one pattern! It'll be debuting at the Stitches Midwest Fashion Show (squee!!!), kits will be for sale in the Great Yarns Booth and the Kollage Yarns Booth, and I'll be signing the pattern in Kollage's Booth on Saturday! Please stop by to say hi :)

But if you want to cast on right now, or can't make it to Stitches Midwest, Patternfish is carrying the pattern and you can download it now here (I am just so excited!).

You know the saying about it takes a village? Well, this design will always be very special for me. It really has taken a village. Erica for challenging me to this creative process (a shawlette? sure, no problem, never knit one, let alone design one....in five weeks...no problem!). Thayer and Terry for modeling. Tricia for her gorgeous photos. And my two awesome, who knits as fast as them, test knitters, Manda and Madeleine (I practically cried with relief when they agreed to test knit under very very tight deadlines). Of course, Susie from Kollage for giving me this exciting opportunity!

Now that the secret project is out, I can't wait to get back to showing you all what else I'm working on. Come back this week for more knitting, a pattern sale (yay!), and a contest or two!

Happy Knitting!

xoxo IrishgirlieKnits

Woohooo!!

I am so excited that I can finally announce part of the super secret project that I've been furiously working on for the past 4 weeks (yes, you read that correctly...4 weeks to whip this together!).

I am going to Stitches Midwest because......

I am so excited to be part of Kollage Yarns' design team for Stitches Midwest and for the release of my new pattern Bellingrath, a sock AND shawlette design out of Sock-a-licious! I'll be at their booth in the market Saturday signing my pattern (crazy! crazy!)!

Other exciting news....our contest winners for my Uncle Frank sock pattern are:

Sherry

LittleBird from SurreptitiousNester

MelissaB

Victoria from Knotes From a Knit Wit

KatherineR

Please send me your email so that I can send you the pattern. You can email me at irishgirlieknits AT gmail DOT com Congratulations!

Are any of you planning to go to Stitches Midwest? Let me know because I'd love to see you!

Happy Weekend!!

xoxo Irishgirlieknits