The BEST Medicine!

What's the best medicine when you are just about 90% recovered from the 2 kidney-infection, acute sepsis incident, 3 days in the hospital on morphine, sickness??? Go to visit one of your best friends who you've known for 17 years and she just happens to live near a fiber festival where your absolute favorite yarn store is going to be!! Oh yeah.

I'm definately all better now!! Just got home tonight...so here's a few pictures to tide you over until I can give you more details later this week!

Here's the prescription......


1)Go visit the Blue Moon Booth at the Oregon Flock & Fiber Festival.


2) Bring your best friend, who will hold lots of yarn for you, since she knits a scarf a year and doesn't want to buy yarn (she just wants to hang out with you, seriously!).

3) Meet new friends who know you love yarn too! Jessica is just as fabulous in person as she is on her blog and on the knittyboards! We missed you Disco (just insert Disco's picture and then it would have been a super-perfect day).

4) Say hi to the animals!

5) Pet the animals!

6) Buy gorgeous skeins of STR Rare Gems and new colors (that cute model is Christy's daughter...we told her to just act like I had been all day!!).

7) Love the yarn!

8) Eat cupcakes. Lots of cupcakes.

It was just what the yarn doctor ordered. Now how to figure out how to work my budget to arrange a visit for the "Barn Sale" in November. Why oh why did Tina have to tell us?!!

xoxo Irishgirlieknits

Lots of Catching Up to Do!

It feels like forever since I've really blogged. I've got tons of catching up to do. First, on the first day of being home sick, I received my Ravelry Summer Swap package from Xtina. Wow! Did she spoil me!! Addi Turbo Lace needles for Magic Loop! I've never tried the lace needles and have heard such great things!!Gorgeous blue skeins of sock yarn to feed my addiction!
Koigu!
Chasing Rainbows Dyeworks 50% tencel, 50% wool socks....gorgeous! And all the other goodies...seriously! Thank you thank you Xtina!!


Now on to my WIPs! There hasn't been too much working lately due to being exhausted and sick, but I did finish my Starry Night/Notre Dame Sock (the second sock is below) and couldn't wait to cast on the socks from the Woolgirl Sock Club.


Before I got sick, I was really, really trying to be dedicated to my Pickle. I mean Tomato. Actually, the color is Pickle (and the color of the original pattern was Tomato, so I've named mine my Pickle sweater). I'm just about to the part where I think I join everything (haven't touched since I've been out of the hospital).
My stitch markers arrived just in time from Discoknits and they match my sweater perfectly!! Disco still has a few left in the shop too!!
I guess I've been on a bit of a stitch marker craze. I can't wait to use my lettered stitch markers from Turtlegirl on a new pair of socks. I know Turtlegirl will be proud that I picked up my Tomato and got my butt in gear!!

Oh, and I have one other project that is just about done, so I'll save it for a FO post hopefully. It was a quick project for Little Guy!


Phew, that seemed exhausting just posting. My doctor says it'll take a few more days to beat the bug completely (but I'm bound and determined to make it up to Portland to visit my friends this weekend and go to Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival!). I've come home from work yesterday and today and gone straight to bed. I feel like I haven't slept so much in my life! Puddy loves it, I think!!

why are you waking me up with that flash?

xoxo Irishgirlieknits

Yarnival!!

Guess what??!!! My submission to this issues's Yarnival was accepted!! Now that's gonna make a girl feel better :) (Seriously, in the short half time break of the sad Michigan slaughter of Notre Dame right now...the Yarntini shop was updated and I got a skein or two with my destash money and then I saw that my post was accepted to Yarnival! Does this mean ND is going to come from down 31 points in the second half too??!! nope). Go read all the other fun knitting blogs in this issue. I had read about submissions on Stitch n Sue's blog last month, and this month she is accepting submissions!

I'm feeling a lot better! Thanks for the get well wishes. Still sleeping a lot though. Have a great weekend!

xoxo Irishgirlieknits

Hospitals Stink!

Just thought I'd share that! Unfortunately, I've spent the last three days in the hospital, quite unexpectedly. I'll spare you all the icky details, but just tell you that I'd been sick since Friday but got medicine and was feeling better by Sunday. Monday was horrible again (very horrible) and Tuesday was even worse (the I-can't-even-knit-worse), and that's when my doctor sent me to the emergency room. Lots of drugs and morphine later, I'm now home (well, technically at Dad's). Hopefully regular knitting will resume tomorrow. For now, I'm off to bed (like the cute doggies below...had to put a picture in such a depressing post!).

xoxo Irishgirlieknits

The Littlest Fan!

Little Guy has a new hat just in time for the football game (phew! glad I modified and finished the larger size).

Go Irish!!

Game was close for awhile, right Little Guy?

Uh-oh! Even Little Guy realizes its going to be a long long season.......

Pattern: Cabled Baby Hat (cast on 16 extra stitches and did cable pattern 2-3 more times than suggested)
Yarn: Socks that Rock, heavyweight, color In the Navy

Have a great weekend!

xoxo Irishgirlieknits

WIP: The Rockin' Edition

First, thank you Zonda for nominating me as a Rockin' Girl Blogger! I was so flattered to be nominated, especially by you!!

In turn, I'd like to nomimate a few bloggers that I love!

Discoknits - She sure can knit some FOs!! That alone amazes and motivates me at the same time! And she is always using such gorgeous yarns. If you are doing the TKGA Master Knitting Program, last month she started a few posts discussing her feedback from them too. Okay, and really, those two cutie boys of hers always make me smile!!

Stilaholic Nartian- Zonda nominated me partially because of my love for all things BMFA. Well, that's how I found Stilaholic's blog and why I love it. She has such drool-worthy, stunning projects and stash! She and Zonda......enablers the both of them! I'd nominate tapmouse too, but I have a sneaking suspicion that Stilaholic will!!!

So here is what is Rockin' lately in my project bag. Another Scarf that Rocks! aka the Chevron Scarf.

I wanted one to go with my fall wardrobe. I'm using Harlotty and January One, both in STR lightweight. I LOVE this combination. Talk about two Rockin' Girl Bloggers...their colorways make a nice combination, don't you think?

I'm ready to start the heel on the Starry Night Sock. I'll admit, this sock suffered a bit during Saturday's football game. Put it away at halftime to see if it would help the Irish turn it around.... it didn't (our household has some superstitions when it comes to wins and losses....however, I have a feeling it might be a long season).

A slightly bigger version of the Baby Hat that Rocks just in case the itty bitty one is too little for Little Guy.

And then we have Tuscany. In BMFA Posh yarn. I love this pattern, but I almost need to decide to only work on it exclusively for a bit if I'm going to make some serious headway. Maybe I should take a Turtlegirl approach to this (she soooo Rocks! She can whip out those projects like nobodies business!). This is actually quite a bit of progress considering I only worked on it on our NYC trip. It was the main project I worked on there and I felt like that helped. Easy pattern to memorize (of course, that was a few weeks ago, so now I'll have to get the swing of it again). I love the drape of the yarn and pattern together though.

And in sad news, Tomato has not been touched. In over six weeks!! Hopefully my sweater mojo will come back soon. Focus power!

Have a great week!!

xoxo Irishgirlieknits

Destash Flickr set.....you know you want some.....hehehehe

The Biggest WIP....the Stash!!

Or should I say the Destash!! Even Rowan got in on the action tonight (not good when Rowan is going through the sock yarn and making decisions....she doesn't quite get that my two tiny skeins of Sundara ARE gorgeous and were hard to come by!). Of course, she knows we don't go near the STR box :)

So, enjoy!! My need to organize/destash/ravelrize (not a word, yet) is your good fortune (lots of sock yarns, then some tess, twinkle, BMFA cotton, etc.). The Destash Flickr set is here! And I also have it posted at Ravelry in my trade/sell stash section here (I think...I'm Irishgirlieknits)Thanks Zonda for the tips too!!

If you are interested in anything, email me at Irishgirlieknits AT gmail DOT com I'll be accepting paypal (but email me first to make sure its still there!).

And, I can't leave you without the cutest model yet!! Modeling her Monica...Miss Baby H!! Ready for this weeks mini-heat wave!! Hopefully I'll have my real WIP pics up later tonight!

Baby Hats!

Cabled Baby Hat that Rocks!

Upside-Down Daisy
Just waiting to be delivered to special little babies (the daisy hat is for Little Guy's girlfriend, and the Cabled Baby Hat is probably a bit too bitty for Little Guy, so its going to Hot Mama's baby boy-on-the-way). The Cabled Baby Hat that Rocks is knit with.....Socks that Rock Heavyweight, colorway In the Navy. Leftovers from the Blanket that Rocks. I used size 7 needles.

This week may be my baby hats week! Little Guy is going to Ireland in October with my brother and SIL (lucky them!), and his current hats are still a bit too big. However, I think this one turned out a bit too small (I get to try it on him Saturday though!). I'm going to make some modifications and make it a bit bigger- either way I'm way behind on knitting for Hot Mama's baby boy (one of my best friends!). I also want to knit a few hats for the Hats for Alex project and if any of you are on the fence, its for a good cause, and Weezalana is having a contest for it too! As Weezalana says, "Spread the juju!"

Have a great week!

xoxo Irishgirlieknits