WIP Wednesday (it's only a day late)

So when I moved to Ireland 19 months ago…I had NO IDEA what I was going to do for entertainment…I started watching ‘Gilmore Girls’ it started off as something to kill time during the day…and then I started to like the characters and get into the story…it was very entertaining. Then something happened…I had an epiphany of sorts... The episode ‘Knit, People, Knit’ came on…and I watched Lorelai and her entire town having a “knitathon” and I thought to myself…I want to start knitting! So I did some research, and tried to find wool/yarn shops in the city centre. Upon searching I was brought to an amazing blog full of useful information. That blog was titled 40 Shades of Life, after reading the post about knitting in Cork City, I decided to venture out and buy some wool! I went to Youghal Knits on Princes Street. From that shop, I purchased my very first yarn and knitting needles. When I got home I must have watched a thousand videos on YouTube about how to knit, I tried and tried and something just wasn’t clicking. Then on the 4th of July, my husband and I ventured into Blarney for the “Blarney Bowl”. Which was great, it was a REAL football game! (and by REAL I mean AMERICAN football, because I just can’t get into soccer for some reason.) We stood there and watched as the players from the “Cork Admirals” and the “Dublin Dragons” began warming up and preparing for the game, and this couple walked up and stood next to us. After striking up a conversation, I found out that they lived in Cork City also! We exchanged info, and when I got home I realized that the lovely woman I had met at the Blarney Bowl was the author of ’40 Shades of Life’ , I contacted her and she invited me to come to her knitting group! It was on that Wednesday night, that I met the most amazing group of women, and my entire life in Cork was quickly turned upside down! For the first time in Cork, I had people to socialize with, hang out with, and call my friends! Those women ignited something within me that I had NO IDEA was in there…it was a love of knitting, and apparently I’m pretty good at it! So after all of that, I am going to get to the point of this post, I am going to start writing a weekly post about what I am working on. I have decided to title it “WIP Wednesday” and of course I realize that it’s not Wednesday, but I had way too much fun baking yesterday to do another post about my knitting! Now..on to my projects.


 This week, I am currently working on 2 projects. The first one is one that I have been working on for a few weeks. It is a delightfully adorable vest type top for my niece. When I decided to make something for my niece there were several factors that had to be considered. 1. She is VERY picky when it comes to clothing, she doesn’t like the way most things feel against her skin, even a normal t-shirt can drive her crazy. 2. The temperature of her home in Phoenix, AZ, it gets QUITE hot there! The third thing I had to consider was how gorgeous she is, I had to find a pattern that would produce something that was as beautiful as she is! So after doing some research and talking to my mother-in-law, I stumbled upon ‘Clara’ by Amber Bertram on Ravelry I decided that THIS was the pattern for my lovely Marin! It is a gorgeous tank style top with a flowing lacy body. I downloaded the pattern and started trying to find the perfect yarn. I decided to go with King Cole Bamboo Cotton because I had knit her something in it before and it’s very soft, and easily cared for!
I am doing pretty well with this pattern, it is a fairly simple pattern, the start is a bit tricky but once you get past it it’s a great pattern. Here is my progress so far:

The second project I am working on this week is for a ‘Knit-along’ featuring yarn from Hedgehog Fibres, This yarn is hand dyed by locally by a lovely woman with an AMAZING eye for color! The yarn I chose to use is a blend of 85% merino and 15% nylon sock yarn, (it’s SOOOOOOOOOOOO soft.) The colorway is ‘Wish’ and it’s a gorgeous blend of teal, turquoise, blue, and green. The pattern I chose is called “Vlad” and it’s by Tammy Bailey. It’s a gorgeous lacy shawl with a gothic sort of feel, which happened to match my mood at that exact moment! Now last night in the midst of the flowing beer, gorgeous cakes and cookies, and the amazing company I somehow lost a few stitches so I have had to frog a bit (thank God for Lifelines) since this photo was taken, but it’s not too far off!