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Another neighbor's yard decor.  Wishing you some treats you don't expect,  some ghosts and goblins that make you smile,  the glow of a Jack o Lantern warming your hearth and the POOF of power if you've lost your electricity in the Hurricane winds.   Happy Halloween For some more Pumpkin fun: Try Sandra Lee's Semi Homemade Pumpkin Pancakes. She basically takes your average pancake mix, and adds 1/3 cup of canned pumpkin, 2/3 cup water,  and some cinnamon. (I added an egg too)  YUM!! Next time I'll add pecans too.  They were delicious and oh so easy. 

  First and foremost, be safe y'all.  Al seems to be out of the hurricane path now.  She was held back at work for a day but she managed.  I think it is rotten that they got paid minimum wage while they slept to prepare for their next shift, but nursing has never been wise about representation and the like.... If you are in the path now or have lost your power etc, I'm thinking of you!  Here's to knitting in candlelight....think of it as spooky We always called this night, the night before Halloween, beggars eve.  Some of us would go out and egg houses this night.....not me of course...I was too afraid of getting caught.  Did any of you honor Beggar's night? Bea is in the true  Halloween spirit of course....  I am too.  I had my yearly Baby Ruth bar at work Sunday night... I am knitting a new pair of socks and had to rip out some of it.  I cast on 64 stitches for the ribbing and then started the body in another yarn.  ...

I'm a far cry from my kids these days.  My kids are grown ups.  I don't want to nag them.  So can YOU?  AL is on the Hurricane Sandy pathway..... any tips for her?   I have bookmarked and Fav'd WAVY 10 News, her local station.  I am used to Tom Skilling of WGN local fame and Jim Cantore of Weather Channel fame... I have to trust the Wavy 10 Team now.... My Second child sock with afterthought heel is well underway.... I like to hunker down with knitting during snowstorms.... all of you in the path of SANDY the Frankenstorm, hunker down. Stay connected.  Call your MOM

  Are you old Fashioned??  In this amazing age of technology some things need to remain old Fashioned.  I needed a gluten free dairy free recipe for dessert yesterday.  My neighbor Abby is gluten free dairy free, and she was coming for dinner.    I found this REAL SIMPLE recipe for Old Fashioned Peanut Butter cookies.  I had little hope they'd turn out delicious.  Why?  Because; What is cookie without butter??  Fooled me.  They are fantastic.  I even used low fat peanut butter and they are amazing.. Fireman loved them.  I loved them. Abby loved them.   IF you want the recipe google Realsimple Old Fashioned Peanut Butter cookies...... I'm old fashioned about a few other things.  I knit my own socks after all.   *I prefer a Paper card in the mail  to a e-card, but I'll take what I can get.  *I love to listen to the radio...... *I prefer Sit Coms to Reality Shows *I drive stick shift ...

  I fear dropped stitches......I really do.  Working an after thought heel involves risk.....20 stitches of risk  Here we are removing the waste yarn and picking up and dividing the stitches onto two needles.  Once they are successfully wrangled onto the needles you readjust to 3 needles and knit toe decreases.  See?? Is this clear as mud?? Well here's the verdict...I LIKED it.   One sock done.   We'll have to see if I like after the second sock is knitted up.   I will say this, its an adorable sock.  It is going to be a child's sock for my great nephew.... After thought heel.....try it, You 'll like it!

Today is about as gorgeous as it gets in Chicago.  It is Indian Summer.  Windows: open Cats: on porch Sun: Streaming through what leaves are left on the trees.  There won't be many, if ANY, more of these days for months to come.     THESE are my afterthought heel socks in progress.  I like all this straight stockinette.  I married some shibu with some lornas.  I alternate yarns each row.  I think they will look great with jeans.   Even our public golf course is dressed up for Fall.   Fireman just drove by in the Engine and tooted at me.  He's so darn cute.  He has to work a double shift today , 48 hours, to get some time off next week.  It is such a glorious day and he's stuck at work....at least he can get out a teeny tiny bit today.  I think they are off to the grocery store...... when you work a double shift you have to buy treats for all of the firehouses that day.   Since ...

I am sorry; I realize this is a knitblog.  I cannot help myself. I love Halloween and Fall.  You just have to put up with more images from my immediate neighborhood.  The new people in a big new house down the road a piece, (doesn't that sound like I live in the country...I don't.  I live in the suburbs. ....)  made their big covered porch spooky.  I LOVE Their zombie at the front door.   I'm all about imagination....so I have pumpkins and my 2 big crows on my front porch.  I also put orange lights in the top window of the house..... If you are all about imagination you can imagine the koigu socks I cast on last night.  I'm imagining I can work an afterthought heel for the first time in my life.  You get kind of cocky after you go motorcycle riding ...... imagine that...

  Beatles needed to be on the blog today, apparently..... He's your good luck black kitty.  *The witch is not mine.....she belongs to a house in Kenilworth Illinios*  I just now cast off the shawl.  I think I have to knit some fingerless gloves next.   My arms/wrists are sore and I know better.  The weight of the shawls and yarn is beginning to show.    Just can't tell you enough how much I love this Susan Ashcroft pattern TGV, Tricot grande vitesse.   I am so thrilled I knit the first in blue acrylic for myself.  It drapes around me when I'm chilly in the house, and well...... knitting!  Recently read that it is really important to thank those who read and comment on your blog...Ree Drummond's post.   So I cannot thank you enough.  I LOVE this little daily part of my life.  I LOVE hearing from you.  I LOVE reading your blogs too.  I Think it is an exchange, in a big big anonymous world.  A ...

  Third Shawl nearing the finish.....this one is all acrylic.  It is for my friend Helen, who SHRUNK the last wool shawl I knitted for her.  She is a funny one.  She matter of factly, called me up and said I needed to knit her another.....because she loved it but she shrunk it.   As I recall, it was a Prayer Shawl and I prayed for her while I knit it.  I forgot about that until now... and I've had to rip and reknit this one a few times this week...... Apparently it's God's way of reminding me that I was forgetting to pray for Helen when I knit this one.   It is nearly finished...I'll fit a prayer or two in for her before the bind off... Lake Michigan in its dark glory yesterday.... Fireman and I went to look for water spouts which were predicted.... no spouts sighted.   Glorious nonetheless.  Fireman is reading THE SECRET RACE by Tyler Hamilton in which doping by Lance and all the rest is clearly laid out. ...

  PHOTO: Neighbor's spooky lawn fun. Note to self: learn how to use Fuji camera in night light   Halloween chips.... note to self they are just plain fun Sloppy Joes vegetarian style.   Note to you: I am in no way trying to make you a vegetarian.  Odds are I'll quit in the future. I just got frightfully spooked when my cholesterol levels went up.    I kept reading about SLoppy Joes, which I LOVE, made with lentils.  I happened to have some lentils and some soy pretend ground beef in my house.  I use my mother in laws own sloppy joe recipe, which is super secret and awesome, when I make this meal.  The Sloppies were sloppy and just as good as with beef. SCORE!   I made a bunch of mistakes on the easy as can be third potato chip shawl in the last 2 days.    Note to self: pay SOME attention to your knitting.... if it weren't for the errors I'd be finished with my 3rd by now. Note to self: Bookmark knittin...

I love all things Halloween as long as they aren't too creepy.   So that leaves out all the gore and such.   Ten things I love about Halloween :   *Baby Ruths  (the only time of year I indulge in them) *Pumpkins and more pumpkins *Young Frankenstein *It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown *Campfires *Watching the Trick or Treaters in our neighborhood *The glorious colors in Chicago this time of year...I can't imagine Halloween without fall colors dancing on every tree limb *IT corresponds with wearing my hand knit wool socks again *Sloppy Joes or Chili *Candy corn with cashews mixed in...... Knit talk resumes tomorrow!   What do you love about Halloween?

We interrupt this Knit Blog for an important announcement: Kathy B rode a motorcycle yesterday.  WHEEEEEEE!   Fireman Joe was so good to me.  The next time someone says to recall a great experience and relax, I'm going right back to that ride in my mind.  I wore glasses, see?  My eye is better.  All you funnies out there are right about my knitting an eye patch...... I think I shall.  Then I can be a pirate for Halloween.  Acrylic Shawl is at the halfway point.  The ribbed ruffle will be a contrasting but complimentary off white color. 

Sorry, but the colors continue to pepper the landscape here .  Soon it will all be grey.  It will be grey for days and days and days and days.   It will be a smothering grey.  On so many grey days, I have to remind myself that above the cloud cover, there is sun and blue sky.... So today you get more colorful images to enjoy.  I believe it is Chicago's finest hour.... Besides knitting today, I am doing something I"ve never done before... Lately I've wanted to ride a motorcycle......so Fireman's Fireman friend Joe is taking me for a ride in a bit.  WHeeeeeeeeee!  Have you ever???

The Pattern Swap is over.  What fun I had with this one. Six of us played along and played well. Jennifer (Major Knitter) sent to me. She sent this adorable sheepy project bag with the patterns. Im already putting it to work.  Adorable, sheepish, clever and whimsical ..all the things I love.     To whomsoever put this Omega Wrap Pattern in the pile...it is jumping out me...it is my next cast on for sure.  It uses different stash yarns for effect......how perfect is that? Who who who added this one?  I had a thrill of another sort last night. I got to leave work at 11 pm.  I had scratched my cornea.....AGAIN, on Saturday and toughed it out at work that night.  Sunday we had extra staff and I got to leave with my eye ointment and head to bed.  It felt like Christmas I tell you, to crawl into my bed at midnight ......like a normal person and sleep the night away... any thrills for you this weekend??

Potato chip knitting...... Second TGV Shawl Tricot grande vitesse..... pattern by Susan Ascroft See Previous posts for..... Yarn specifics This one is a gift for a dear friend with a November birthday. I've already cast on the next. In Acrylic.

  All I have to do is drive down the street to show you how EVERY street looks right now in my area... This is our reward for living in a climate with deciduous trees All I have to do is drive down the street to show you that gas is up over 4.00 a gallon again today.  When gas goes over 4 dollars a gallon I do this:  I buy acrylic yarn.  It doesn't itch when worn, it is machine wash and dry and it is hard to justify a 46 dollar malibrigo shawl when a 8 dollar shawl is less irritating.  Seriously folks..  I have had this small rash on my right wrist for MONTHS.  It doesn't get any more graphic than that, so read on you queasy lay folk.... I went to my doctor about it; I consulted my smart allergy nurse friend Linda, and I used creams and pills to get it to go away.  Then, Last month, it got exponentially better...... I have been covering up this area at work and gloving over it too, all the while being assured it is not contagious....

  Rozzy got out of her carrier on the way home from the vet yesterday.  She was a wonderful passenger.  She's 15 now.   Rozzy is clearly enjoying the fall foliage.... These ponies evoked such wonderful memories for me last week at the pumpkin patch.  I was flooded with thoughts of my first pony ride.  I remember the music played and the horses walked around in a slow circle so that I could be a cowgirl......I remember wishing the music would go on and on so I could keep riding.  I waved to my mom, "SEE ME??" and held on to the saddle horn tightly.... I first fell in love with horses this way many years ago.....did you?   (I resisted, at 52, asking the woman if I could get up on one of those ponies again and ride around and around ....but oh I wanted to!) The pride is adjusting to the fall weather around here.   I have had a cat on my lap as I've knitted the past 2 nights.   Different cats a different times; I know well enoug...

(Dream light worsted in BROWNIE and Madelinetosh in Firewood) (Shawl Repeat) *Listening to Pearl Jam's Just Breathe... it is the final song in the movie BUCK What qualifies as an addiction to A Movie?  I've seen BUCK 3 times now in a matter of about a month.     Usually I can spread my love of a movie out over a decade or so of replays, but this one's getting embarrassing... "You watched that AGAIN MOM?????" an incredulous AL scolds me on the phone recently.... I used to watch the Monks Of New Skete dog training  videos ad nauseum as well.....my kids would walk in the room and I 'd look up, guilty again....BUT if you've ever seen their training tapes, they are photographed so spectacularly they deserve an award... I can't step away from the TV if Apollo 13 is on ......I do a slow head turn as I try to walk out of the room....and then, inevitably...I'm sucked in..  "Houston we have a problem" as if they won't make it home...

I love the sound of waves hitting the shore.  Many babies in the NICU have sound machines that have a wave channel.    Today I start napping at noon.  I nap until 5pm .  You would think that would keep me from tiring tonight, but 0400 is awful no matter how much sleep I get ahead of time.   Oh well, it is my choice for now. I love to sleep.  I relish it.  I look forward to it.  Maybe because I work night shift..... I dont recall loving sleep this much when I worked normal hours....I keep my bedroom dark and very cool to almost cold.   I keep a fan running on the HIGH setting.  Phones off and not even in the room.  I take my sleep seriously...very seriously.....:) and the last topic I planned is the Joy of knitting gifts for co workers grand babies.  MY co workers are having babies and some are having grand babies.  Even if I just knit a stocking cap or beret, the gifts are  so well loved.   Lynn of...

and the Joy of Yarn in the Mail. I forgot my own topic today: so here's a fill in: I do love a new appliance.  I gave away our immersion blender, to Al and I am wanting another.  I picked these unripe cherry tomatoes before the cold cold weather set in yesterday.  I'm doing that thing with newspaper and a box full of green tomatoes.  I just couldn't see all those unripened cherry tomatoes going to waste.  Fireman wanted to pickle them.  I think that's just a stomach ache waiting to happen. I'll keep you posted on their mysterious ripening process. As for The Joy of Yarn in the Mail.....well, I get pretty excited over it.  The whole box on the front porch thrill....the torture of the Packing Tape .....and finally seeing what I ordered.  I have ordered from SimplySocks company.  They are very helpful on the phone and the yarn comes  lickety split.   I have ordered from KnitPicks and have always liked the color of the yarn wh...

 Yesterday Fireman and I went on a woods walk.   I love Autumn in Illinois.   Yesterday 80 degrees, today the radiators are on.  That's how it is here.  No cougar sightings, no fox no deer.  But, a tiny red breasted nut hatch creeped up a tree trunk.... The River has a scattering of leaves on its muddy face now.   Now the hand knits come out for their real purpose.....I'll be wearing my new shawl today.  I wore a pair of wool socks to bed a week or so ago.    Any October Joy in your day today???  Any handknits coming out to play? 

TGV Tricot Grande Vitesse- High Speed Knitting Pattern by Susan Ashcroft.  Carol modeling for me after the finish yesterday.  Yes , I have already cast on for another...... Today's topics were Love of wildlife and Love of Fingerless gloves. Living in suburbia means more wildlife than you'd think these days.   We see fox, coyote, deer, hummingbirds, all very occasionally.   We see skunk, possum, raccoon and sparrows all the time. Just about every form of wildlife thrills me.  My father was/is a hunter/fisherman and his love of the outdoors is in my genes. My mother, on the other hand, is the polar opposite.   There have  been Cougar sightings in our area this summer.   What a thrill that would be!   My friend Karen has been hearing an owl in her yard recently at night....I'm on call to run over the next time she hears it.... As for Fingerless, I'm a huge fan.  I suppose it is time I make another pair.  I just rib at both ...

After watching a news segment on Channel 5 or NBC news, Fireman and I are going to buy photoelectric smoke alarms to replace our current smoke alarms.  Google them, tell those you love and put them up in your home.  That's your friendly Fireman recommendation here at Irisheyes.   (and we dont have stock in them....we just want to keep you safe...)

What's with the ugly pumpkins this year?  Leave it to Halloween to make an anomaly a commodity. Today I am writing about my perfect knitting spot.  Truth is, there's lots of them.... *on a plane to take my mind off the fact that I'm suspended way above the Earth where the GOOD Lord put me, in a tiny little chair *on my back porch in the summertime evenings when the crickets sing ..... truthfully .I do not have the perfect chair for knitting out there..yet... *with knit friends at our local pub.....the waitress even gives us separate checks without asking now and Carol and Karen always let me have some of their fries... *in my tiny cozy home in front of a crackling fire in the fireplace....truthfully I don not have the perfect chair for knitting inside yet either... This post prompt leads me to the realization that I don't have a good enough chair/couch/lazyboy for knitting in my own home.   I have short stubby Hungarian legs and they don't reach the...

Sometimes it is easier to write with a prompt.  So I'm going to list 5 days of themes for this week.   If you wish to join in, hooray. The more the merrier.  Each day will involve some knitting thoughts and some completely unrelated thoughts.....because you know how random I can get.... Tuesday, today: The Joy of Mammograms and the Joy of Finding a Lost Needle Wednesday: The Joy of Fall Foliage and the Joy of the Right Knitting Spot Thursday: The Joy of Seeing Wildlife and the Joy of Fingerless Gloves Friday: The Joy of a New Appliance and the Joy of Yarn in the Mail And FInally Saturday: The Joy of Sleep of course, and the Joy of Knitting for a Co workers new grand baby. So, Im off to have my mammogram for the year and I'm so excited about it.  Just can't wait to get in a gown and freeze my chest off waiting to be called in.  Just can't wait to answer whether I've gained any weight this year, and just can't wait to hold my breath a fe...