Good Things.

So many good things the past few weeks that I've been wanting to share with you guys, I feel like I've been writing mini-blogposts in my head to you. Here goes.

1. Did everyone have a happy Halloween? I spent it with the cutest unicorn! I loved watching her walk 10-12 steps down the hallway at Grandma's house! Such a big girl. She's been taking steps for a few weeks now, but it is so exciting to see her get better and better each week.





The tween aka Lil' Snowboarder went as Beyonce and looked Flawless but you know how Beyonce has contractual issues with appearing on knitting blogs...haha!

Now, we all know how crafty Lil' Guy's mom is, right? Are you ready to see the makeup she did for his costume? They do pictures together every year for Halloween....I always look forward to their card... are you ready???





Amazing, right?! I love it!

2. Almost as amazing as #OrangeOctober and the Giants winning the World Series!



It was an awesome week! An awesome month of playoff games actually. Lil' Snowboarder and I spontaneously decided to go to the divisional game where the Giants clinched it and went on to NLCS. The game was awesome!



First, our friends who live a few hours away happened to have the seats right in front of us (crazy, right?!) and then lil' snowboarder was determined to catch the ball that Juan Perez was tossing to the crowd in between innings after the outfielders were warming up. So she went down there and lo' and behold, her pointed right to her and tossed it to her! She was on cloud nine the entire night!







3. Now if you read my last post, you may remember I mentioned I was trying to finish knitting Magpie a sweater for her birthday party last weekend. Oh, us knitters and our deadlines. I think I gave myself a week to knit a baby sweater. No problem, right? Well, here I was the Friday morning before the Sunday morning party.



I'd divided for the sleeves and was now at the body. I was feeling somewhat positive.



Saturday morning I was on the first sleeve by the end of the soccer game. Feeling very positive. But then there was party prepping for a few hours, and then my stupid head pain problems caught up with me and I was down for the count for a few hours. But then the sleeves were done, and the sweater was blocked and dried overnight with multiple fans on it! The buttons were sewn on two hours before the party.





So worth it! My own design, similar to her baptism sweater, but this time in a sport weight yarn, The Plucky Knitter Primo Sport, colorway After Dark.

Magpie had a fabulous time at her party. She loved her cake, made by her Auntie, Lil' Guy's mom (you know we LOVE her cakes!).







4. I have some fun blog news to share! Many of you longtime blog readers have heard me mention my friend Tricia, aka Cheekyattitude, over the years. She's my friend, a knitter, she's been an IGK photographer, a librarian, and an amazing blogger. And now she'll be part of the IGK team! I'm not sure assistant is the right word for what she'll be doing since she is overqualified for everything she'll be helping me with, but I'm excited to have her on board. You'll see her in our IGK ravelry group, she'll be behind the scenes cleaning up the blog about, but most exciting will be that she'll be blogging here, putting the "we" back in the "We" Do Not Have a Knitting Problem. Please help me welcome her this week when you see her post.



Cheekyattitude, behind the camera

5. I made these Banana Yogurt Crumb Muffins this morning. It seems like forever since I've had energy to bake, so  I'm slowly trying to get back into the groove. These muffins are from Jennifer Perillo's magazine, Simple Scratch Cooking, and I've been wanting to make them since the magazine arrived. They are delicious and the family has already requested more.



I've made another recipe from the magazine too, the apple salad (I can't remember the exact name off the top of my head), and I love the dressing from it. I paired it with these sweet & savory candied walnuts from her blog- so good! It was a hit at the birthday party last weekend.

6. Autumn Rainbow colorway from Knitted Wit. I ordered this yarn after falling in love with it over on Neuroknitter's blog.





So much pretty in one skein of yarn!

7. Pretty flowers. Thanks sis! They sure made my week.



8. Knitted Wit has a new sock yarn, Victory Sock, and to launch it she's donating $5 for every skein of Camo and Purple Heart purchased from Nov. 1-15 to Fisher House Foundation and Wounded Warrior Project. And what to knit with this gorgeous yarn? I'm joining her and I'm donating $2 from every pattern purchase of Uncle Frank, Dear Baby Francis, and Fine Fella from Nov. 1-15 to Fisher House Foundation to support our military families and veterans. After all, my Great Uncle Frank gave his life for our country in World War II and received the Purple Heart, and I named all of those patterns after him, so I'm glad to give back in a small way. To encourage you all a bit, I've also marked the patterns on sale during this time to $5.



Hightower Socks by Sorren Kerr (also participating in this with us) shown in Victory Sock colorway Camo (right), Uncle Frank shown in Victory Sock colorway Purple Heart

So there you go. Lots of good things. I hope your weeks have been filled with good things too. I'd love to hear about them. Here's a great week ahead filled with more good things.

Happy Knitting!
Irishgirlieknits

Happy Birthday Magpie!

I can't believe it has already been a year!



Time sure does fly!



Her party is this weekend but I love that my sister made her her own cake tonight. I just LOVE this picture!



She also had her picture taken today, in a sweater I knit for her with a matching dress I gave to her last year. Who knew it would fit perfectly today?!

This sweet baby girl has been such a blessing to our family this year.



Her and mama coming home from the hospital :)



The tiniest Gryffindor!



Here she is coming with me as my littlest cheerleader for my first radiation appointment last year.



Go Irish!!





And the cutest baby model, right?!?!?





A lovely Mother's Day this year.







Oh, that smile just melts my heart!!!

Happy Birthday Magpie! I sure hope I can finish knitting your sweater by your birthday party since it matches your dress! Anyone want to take any bets?!?

xoxo Irishgirlieknits

{this moment}

{this moment} A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you're inspired to do the same, visit SouleMama leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

Go Irish! Beat Seminoles!

xoxo Irishgirlieknits

I Love Yarn Day

Who knew there was such a thing?! How perfect because since I'm visiting Erica and her family this weekend I was able to peek at her mom's Bare Naked Wools stash! I'm already a huge fan of Knitspot's yarn line, having knit with a  few of the yarns already.



I designed my Contorta socks out of Breakfast Blend fingering.



I knit a Polartorte hat out of Stone Soup DK. I think Stone Soup is probably my favorite yarn so far.



Here's Stone Soup fingering. I can't wait to try the fingering version of this yarn.



Erica's mom is knitting a Summer Wind out Stone Soup fingering and I just love how it is knitting up. It feels so lovely.



And here's Kent Worsted. This yarn looks amazing! Another I can't wait to try!

So what yarns do you love?!? Any new ones I should add to my must-try list?

Happy Knitting!
xoxo Irishgirlieknits

p.s. Since it is I Love Yarn Day, and so many love the Loopy Ewe for our yarns, check out a fun Designer Interview they did on me today (and it features a coupon code on my patterns). Happy Yarn Day!

Summer in NYC

Why yes, I know, it isn't summer and I'm not in New York City. But one of the things I love about this blog is that in addition to sharing my knitting, it is a space to remember special trips or events. I still can't quite believe that I haven't shared my quick two and a half days back at the end of July! And since  I'm on another quick trip this weekend, I figured I better share that trip first.



I arrived late Tuesday night and planned to cram a lot in in just two and half days. The agenda...... Food, Fun, and Broadway (I'm a theater junkie!!!)!

I followed a lot of Tricia's, aka Cheeky Attitude, recommendations from her blog. Being on my own in the city I could go wherever I wanted. In someways that was awesome, but in other ways, there were almost too many choices. So it was nice to have some trusted recommendations.





First stop, the basement of the Plaza hotel has a food hall that is amazing. So many choices. The lobster roll was delicious. And I couldn't resist trying a marshmallow or two.






Even though I had seen it before, I just couldn't resist seeing Alan Cumming and Michelle Williams in Cabaret at Studio 54! It was awesome!! That's how I started my Wednesday. Then of course, it was time for dinner. Ha! More food.





There is no way to describe how HUGE this pastrami sandwich was! I could only eat half! It was so good though! Now the amount of walking I had done that day was more than I had been able to do in months so I felt absolutely no guilt eating the next thing later....



A perfectly scrumptious vanilla cupcake from Magnolia Bakery. Day made. Except for one more amazing thing.



Seeing Audra McDonald perform her one woman show, Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill. It was such an intimate theater too, plus I didn't realize when I purchased my ticket that I was practically front row (the theater is set up a little differently, so she sang two or three songs literally about six feet away from me....just amazing!). She truly embodied Billie Holiday.

As perfect as Wednesday was, Thursday was even better. I had planned to meet up with Tracey, a friend I had met through knitting and Ravelry. Of course, there's always that little bit of worry that maybe we wouldn't hit it off in person, but, honestly, I just couldn't imagine that. And I was right. We both can't wait for the next trip!!! We had such a fun day!

We met up at Balthazar's in SoHo. It was lovely and relaxing and perfect.



Look at that big bowl of a cafe au lair. Just how I like it!




Balthazar selfie :)

I think we ate the flaky almond croissant too quickly to take a picture. Afterwards we made our trek to mecca, aka Purl Soho.



Tracey even came with a special yarn gift.....an gorgeous skein of Madelinetosh in a colorway dyed exclusively for her LYS! Isn't it gorgeous! Thanks again Tracey.



And then, I introduced Tracey to Laduree. I had scoped the place out the day before to see if it would be a good spot to just sit and knit for a couple hours (ok, a bit decadent to sit and knit, but it was on my list of things to do and thought it would be fun to do with a friend). We had so much fun!! Oh Tracey, I miss you!!









We sat out on the patio and enjoyed tea and sweets and knit and laughed and had a lovely afternoon. It was a perfect afternoon.







Macaron, anyone?

Tracey headed back home and I went back to the hotel for a bit before heading out for the evening. One fun part of traveling alone and going to the theater is having an early dinner. I was able to get a last minute reservation at the popular restaurant, Rubirosa's. Their pizza was AMAZING!



And then I headed up town to see Idina Menzel in her new Broadway show If/Then. The show had received mixed reviews, but I absolutely loved it. Yes, it was Idina and I had seen her perform in Wicked before. I think I loved this performance because I could relate so much to the character and the story and where she was at in her life. I really enjoyed it! And Idina was stunning and amazing and incredible and yes, I'm gushing!!

Friday was a quick morning....but I did grab lunch at Shake Shack (I was told it was a must!) at Madison Square Park.









And then it was back to the hotel to wait for Leslie to head to the airport together. Thank you Leslie for letting me tag along on your business trip and for staying at a swanky SoHo hotel that has a lobby that looks like this!

So yes, a few months later, but a great few days....thanks for traveling down memory lane with me. I promise to share this next trip with you a bit more promptly!

Happy Knitting!!
xoxo Irishgirlieknits