52 Weeks of Happy (24/52)

• bottomless mimosas, brunch with good friends, and absolutely delicious poached eggs

• laughing at knit nite :)

• knitting by the pool

• Harry Potter marathons 

• memories of Yosemite. I still can't get over how spectacular it is and what a great weekend we had!

I hope your week was filled with happy....anything you'd like to share?

Happy Knitting!
xoxo Irishgirlieknits

Good Things.

Just wanted to share a few good things.

1. I spent most of TNNA in a booth with Hilary and I loved seeing her wear this shawl, Shadow & Glow. She just released it this weekend, so now you can knit it too.



2. Another fun pattern that was released this week is Knitterella's Ripple Effect Fingerless Gloves. These are perfect for fall and Christmas knitting.  She has a coupon code in the notes of the pattern page on ravelry, be sure to use that! It is good through the end of Plucktember, I mean September :)

3. Plucktember is coming!! A celebration of all things Plucky Knitter in September! Check out the Plucky Knitter Ravelry Group for more info and they are nominating and voting on specific KALs this weekend if you are interested.

4. I've been meaning to share this lovely Dancette that Jocelyn knit up in one gorgeous skein of Wollmeise. You can read more about her mods on her project page. Isn't it lovely?!

5. Have you joined our IGK KAL for this quarter? The theme is awesome and giving us a bit of a kick in the KAL thread! All credit for the theme goes to our lovely moderator, Jocelyn! From now through the end of the month, I'm having a 20% off sale (any IGK pattern valued at $6 or less) with the coupon code: chopchop

6. The SF Giants have won 2 games in a row since the All-Star Break! Woohooo!! Keep it up World Champs!

7. Have you seen the new season of The Killing? Love this show.

8. I haven't made this, but doesn't it look delish?

9. Knitting progress. Still loving Anzula's Cricket yarn!!



10. Monday will be here quickly, but after work Tuesday, I'll be heading here for a few days......yay for summer!!

Any good things you have to share? I'd love to hear.

Happy Knitting!
xoxo Irishgirlieknits

P.S. Book review and contest is still open!

The Knitted Home

I love this new book that I'm going to share today. I'll not only be sharing my review, but the book will be going to one lucky reader (see how at the end of the post).



The Knitted Home: Creative and Contemporary Projects for Interiors by Ruth Cross



I want to knit practically everything in this book in the hopes that my home will look as lovely as these pictures evoke. From the pillows/cushions to that lovely blanket!



Garter stitch is such a classic to me. Who wouldn't want to snuggle in that blanket?



Throughout the book there are complete patterns for you to create these beautiful projects. But Ruth also encourages and gives advice on how to experiment for yourself to produce your own designs. For the vases shown above, she gives guidelines for ways to create your own. How fun would a bunch of different sized mason jars as vases be?



If I ever have a craft room or studio, I would love to do this for some of my swatches. I love the gray palette she uses here too.



As she goes through the book, she shows how you can adapt these patterns to different sizes, scales and shapes so that they can be widely applied around the home to create completely personal pieces.



Another one of my favorite designs....simple, yet classic, but also a bit creative. Who would have thought, but now I want a knitted fruit bowl, right?



And a bit of trivia, Ruth was responsible for designing the now iconic mittens worn by Bella in the Twilight Saga.

Here's where you can find the book...


 (US release has a slightly different title)


(UK version available in the US or here is Amazon UK link)

You can find more information, as well as quite a few other great books, at the publisher's site. I'm so glad that they shared this review copy for me as this is quite a lovely book. And now, I'm going to share it with you. One lucky reader will win a copy. Have you knit items for your home? Anything on these pages inspire you to think about it? What would you knit first? Leave me a comment and a way to contact you if you win (e.g., ravelry id, email).

Happy Knitting!
xoxo Irishgirlieknits

P.S. I know I've mentioned how I love some of the Craftsy classes that I've taken. There are having a big summer sale this weekend, so I thought I'd enable you guys a bit :) Click the link below.

TNNA: The Stuff

I've come to the conclusion that I can't fit all the goodies from my trip to TNNA in June into one post. Trying to do that results in me just not blogging about everything, and that's no fun, right?  So, I'll surprise you guys with some of the fun things I received.....bit by bit.

Let's jump right to the yarn, ok?



Two skeins of gorgeous Baah! Yarns La Jolla.  I knit my San Mateo out of La Jolla and just loved it, so am quite excited to put these two beauties together.



This gorgeous skein of Shalimar Yarns Breathless is calling to me to be cast on soon. I just love it!! It was so nice to meet Kristi, the dyer behind Shalimar Yarns, and Lara, one of my online blogging friends, who I finally was able to meet in person. Lara did a great job talking about Shalimar Yarns on her post here.



Anzula Cricket. One of my new favorite yarns. I couldn't resist a few baby girl colors since my sister is going to have a baby girl!! I knit Lilianna out of Anzula Cricket and it is the perfect one skein baby project, if I do say so myself (biased, biased, I know...but that yarn is heavenly!).



I'm about to cast on a solid color version of my Peekaboo Penelope baby sweater.  I just love this color, even though it isn't a traditional baby girl color. What do you think?



Not yarn, but one of my favorites that I saw at TNNA. New cards and gift tags from Knitterella. I bought them as soon as she made them available online. Love love love them!! Jill was kind enough to throw in an extra in my order, so one of our lucky KAL participants is going to win a great prize!!!  If you haven't heard, come join our IGK 3rd quarter KAL...this one is a hoot!!

In other exciting news, I'm hoping to get to knit nite tomorrow nite!! It's the small things, right?!?

Happy Knitting!
xoxo Irishgirlieknits

52 Weeks of Happy (23/52) The Yosemite Edition

I still can't quite believe it took me this long to get to Yosemite National Park. What an amazing weekend we had there last week with Disco and her family! An absolutely perfect vacation, so please indulge me with the pictures.





It started with very big trees :)



And that view.






The next day Disco was the best driver ever on the drive to 7000 elevation on a tiny 2-lane road on the side of a mountain to see views like this.








We were definitely in the wilderness when we saw the coyote.







Just don't look down.



To think, Disco and I met through the Knitty Coffeeshop way back when in early 2007 when she was my secret pal.  For a kick, here are pictures of us at our first Stitches together and some funny quotes! Here we are six years later, the best of friends, and a family vacation!! Truly blessed :)



The kids got along great and were the best little adventurers! We ended the day perfectly with this view and the kids swimming in the river.









Don't worry....there was knitting too :)





We wrapped up our trip with a baseball game, Giants vs Mets (boo! The Mets won, but Disco's family, huge Mets fans were happy).






Heck, we stayed for a 16-inning game, so we were just happy to go home at 1am! We did get to see Tim Lincecum pitch a great game, but not as great as his historic no-hitter tonight!!! Go Timmy!!

I hope you all are enjoying your weekend! I'm missing vacation already.

Happy Knitting!
xoxo Irishgirlieknits

P.S. If you'd love to knit a hand knit blanket, go check out what Disco is up to and donate for a chance to win! I'm entered :) Disco continues to inspire me! Run Disco Run!

Beautiful. Gorgeous. Wish you were here!

Family vacation in Yosemite with Disco and her family. We are having a blast! I can't wait to show you some of the amazing pictures, but until I'm home, here are a few from the phone :)

Happy happy knitting, especially if you are the passenger driving through this lovely national park!
Xoxo Irishgirlieknits

Then There Were Hats

Those two shawls that I whipped up in less than a month wiped me out a bit. Between that and prepping for TNNA, I hadn't knit in over a week when I hopped on the plane to Michigan. I was so confident that I'd crank out that baby hat before the end of the flight that I stopped and closed my eyes. I forgot how busy knitting events can be and I didn't finish that hat until almost a week later on my flight home. Then I cast on another hat because I just wasn't ready for something that required more creativity.



Here you go. All my knitting progress for the past few weeks. Naylor Streets. A wee one and a big one.

I'll be honest, after that last designing frenzy, I was worried that I hadn't thought about what new design was next. But by Sunday of TNNA, I was inspired and ready to cast on....just no time!



These three skeins of Anzula Cloud called to me right away. Aren't they lovely! As soon as I started swatching, I fell in love with the yarn all over again.  I don't think I appreciated how soft it was last year when I furiously knit my shawl to wear to my sister's wedding. I can't believe my sister's wedding was exactly one year ago! Time flies!! Happy Anniversary sis!



I'm liking these colors together. What do you think?



Here's wishing everyone a Happy 4th of July here in the US! I'm not quite sure mine will be that exciting as I've been getting over a cold (seriously, when it is 90 something degrees out...doesn't seem fair?!?!) and I must be better by Friday when I leave for a long weekend in Yosemite to meet up with Disco!!! Oh, reminder that Wish I Might and Falling Slowly are still on sale through July 8!

Happy happy!!
xoxo Irishgirlieknits

P.S. Craftsy is having a sale (up to 50% off) on 5 great knitting classes from now through July 5th, including Anne Hanson's Button Bands and Buttonholes Class (which I love!), and Shawlscapes with Stephen West , another one I enjoyed. And I just signed up for Laura Nelkin's second class, Lace from the Inside Out Class because I loved the first one!