Happy Birthday IGK!

SPECIAL GUEST BLOG POST

Welcome to the start of something new - a guest blogger from time to time. I thought it would be fun to kick off this series today, giving Irish Girlie an extra special birthday treat - a day off of  blogging! And hopefully lots of extra knitting time! I chatted with Irish Girlie's knitting friend Erica and she was super excited to start the fun! 
Enjoy, 
Tricia

I  pondered about what I could talk about today. I had all kinds of ideas about IGK's favorite things. Then it hit me! I could take an afternoon celebrating her with my lil man and document our adventure. He loves Auntie Irishgirlie



and loves birthday celebrations!

I buckled him into his car seat and whispered in his ear, "we're going out for cupcakes". He was beside himself. All the way to Royal Oak he chanted "cupcakes, cupcakes"! We walked inside Taste Love Cupcakes and it was like they knew a 2 1/2 year old with a pancake obsession would be stopping by.

Flavor of the day - Chocolate Chip Pancake. He had no idea his two favorite things could be morphed together. We ordered Chocolate Salted Caramel for Auntie.

Padraig slid over her chocolate cupcake to the empty seat next to him.



I told him Auntie wouldn't be coming, but we could talk about her and sing to her. He immediately chanted "Let's Go Irish"! Isn't that a hoot!? It wasn't Happy Birthday, but I knew it would melt Irishgirlie's heart. We dove into our cupcakes and happily chanted "Let's Go Irish" between every bite!

Happy Birthday IGK! I hope today is filled with baked goods and laughs and Irish-themed music. Even if it's a cheer you would hear at a Notre Dame football game. Mwah from us!



To keep the birthday fun going, let's leave LOTS of comments on this post so when Irishgirlie's home tonight knitting and relaxing she'll have lots of fun birthday wishes to read! Cheers to virtual presents!

Just a reminder... Irish Girlie Knits patterns are 20% off in honor of birthday month!



You can browse her catalog of patterns here. I suggest Keegan if you want a quick, cute knit. My mom knit Padraig another one last week!

The design has such a generous fit due to its construction. The largest size on the pattern still fits a toddler!

Another reminder...don't forget to enter Tricia's contest here. You have until February 12 for a chance to win!

Happy Birthday IGK and Happy Knitting on your new Anzula design!
Erica (kzooerica on ravelry)

How Long is Too Long?

I'm pretty good at making things for people when they ask me to. As long as they don't have a scary deadline (I've mentioned that I'm slow, haven't I?) or are way beyond my skills. No sweaters. I've never knit a sweater. Not for anyone. They scare me. I have images of mismatched sleeves and droopy necklines dancing in my head.

Anyway, a hat was requested and the request was specific enough for me to be able to choose the pattern and yarn. But there were requirements. It had to be black and it had to be manly - nothing fancy he said.

I knew of just the pattern - Naylor Street, and I had some lovely Plucky that would be perfect. I set to cast on.




Everyone seems to have a favorite cast-on. My go to cast-on is the long tail method that my grandmother taught me when I was learning to knit. The only problem is that I can't seem to set aside the right amount of tail. I heard that you can wrap the yarn around the needle 10 times and then use that as a the 10 stitch measurement to cast on. I did this with this hat, and it seemed way too long. But I kept going, I was following a rule. I was about half way done and I should have stopped, but I didn't. When I got to the right number of stitches on the needles I had about 3 FEET of tail left! How did that happen? I must have miss counted. So I started over. The second time showed promise. But again, way too long a tail - about 2 feet. I have no idea where I was going wrong. The tail was over my thumb while casting on so I was using the "correct" yarn.

The third time, I decided to be "smart" and measured the space between first and last stitches of the horrible cast on knowing that had to be the right measurement. And theoretically it should have worked. So this was the long way of excusing myself for this extra long tail.



No way was I going to start again so I just kept going and despite the crazy start the hat itself turned out lovely. But it still leaves me wondering about cast-ons options. 

I polled the knit night group:

• Person A would just knit it into the beginning, holding the tail and working yarn together.
• Person B would just leave it as I did.
• Person C would have cast on again.
• Person D doesn't like long tail and only uses the cable cast on.

What say you smart knitters out there - What would you do?

Don't forget about the sale!

A little bit of perfect.

That's how the weekend has been so far. I'm in Port Ludlow for a girls weekend and a knitting retreat and I'm definitely savoring each moment.

We flew in early Friday morning to Seattle and our first stop was Churchmouse Yarns & Teas on Bainbridge Island. Such a lovely store.





Then we just had to get Mora's Ice Cream.  Goodness, the Bailey's ice cream was delicious.



The sun was shining in Port Ludlow when we arrived and it has been here the entire weekend. So lovely!









Seriously. Sun, water, knitting, friends, relaxing. Life doesn't get much better.

I hope you all had a perfect weekend too.

Happy Knitting!
xoxo Irishgirlieknits

p.s. I'm having a bit of a vacation pattern sale....all IGK patterns and ebooks are 20% off with the coupon code: portludlow through April 21, 2014.

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!

Made of Win

Saturday was a perfect day!  Katie and Nick had an awesome bachelorette/bachelor party as the Giants beat the Brewers.

The gorgeous day started with a tailgater...








My brother and his BFFs

and goody bags.....



The 30 of us were a large enough group to rent the special Corona Beach Club dugout down the 1st base line.  It was awesome and definitely a special way to enjoy a baseball game!














Perfect combo don't you think?!






Josh even made a new friend...

who then gave him a ball...





You know I was happy...






It was so nice to see Katie and Nick's friends and family all together celebrating their future together!  Makes me excited for their wedding!



Go Giants!
xoxo Irishgirlieknits