Nine Ladies Dancing

On the ninth day of Christmas

my true love sent to me -

Nine ladies dancing,

Eight maids a-milking,

Seven swans a-swimming,

Six geese a-laying,

Five golden rings,

Four calling birds,

Three French hens,

Two turtle doves,

And a partridge in a pear tree.

Me? I was busy knitting UFO sweaters for the Twelve Days of Christmas and feeling pretty good about not casting on any new projects in the last nine days.

Eight Maids a-Milking

On the eighth day of Christmas,

my true love sent to me -

Eight maids a-milking,

Seven swans a-swimming,

Six geese a-laying,

Five golden rings,

Four calling birds,

Three French hens,

Two turtle doves,

And a partridge in a pear tree.

And what did I do? I finished a second UFO, the Mystery Socks that Kirsten Kapur (Through the Loops) designed for Lolly's Socktoberfest IV. Througout October a new clue was posted weekly and I was able to keep up all the way through. I even worked on the second sock each week. But, when it looked like the pattern was not showing up well in a dark purple yarn I lost enthusiasm and set them aside.

I really didn't want to frog such a lovely pattern, and even more so after knitting my favorite heel - the Eye of Partridge, isn't it pretty? So, I picked them up for the Twelve Days of Christmas UFO challenge. As I approached the toe on the second sock I had my own little surprise......I ran out of yarn! Fortunately, I had one skein of multi-colored Koigu with a little purple in it and saw that it would complement the solid purple Koigu of the sock.

Pattern: TTL Mystery Sock by Kristen Kapur

Yarn: 2 skeins purple Koigu (ran short) + multi-colored Koigu for toe

Needles: 2.5mm metal Knitpicks

Seven Swans a-Swimming

On the seventh day of Christmas,

my true love sent to me

Seven swans a-swimming,

Six geese a-laying,

Five golden rings,

Four calling birds,

Three French hens,

Two turtle doves,

And a partridge in a pear tree.

And me? A UFO was finished during the Twelve Days of Christmas!

The Mad Color Weave socks are quite possibly my all-time favorite socks. The Lorna Laces Shepherd Sport, being a thicker yarn than fingering weight, enabled these socks to knit up quickly. They are soft and squishy, too!

I utilized a new knitting technique. I learned how to do the eight-row weave pattern without using a cable needle. The weave pattern seemed to eliminate the 'pooling' issue that Lorna Lace yarns so often have. The heel was different from any I've ever knit before. It was a stockinette heel with a cable down either side. If I were to make any modifications to the pattern, I would probably replace the twisted cable going down either side of the center weave pattern with a baby cable as Pat did. Other that that, the patter is perfect!


Pattern: Mad Color Weave by Tina Lorin

Yarn: 1.5 skeins Lorna Laces Shepherd Sport in the Huron colorway

Needles: 2.75mm Lantern Moon dpns

Size: 58 stitches

Six Geese A-Laying

On the sixth day of Christmas,

my true love sent to me

Six geese a-laying,

Five golden rings,

Four calling birds,

Three French hens,

Two turtle doves,

And a partridge in a pear tree.

And me? Well, I remembered there once was a cardigan that I must have! My Must Have Cardigan is lacking two arms that I just may be able to make some progress on in the remaining six days of working on UFO's for the Twelve Days of Christmas.

Five Golden Rings

On the fifth day of Christmas

my true love sent to me,

Five golden rings,

Four calling birds,

Three French hens,

Two turtle doves,

And a partridge in a pear tree.

And I had an itching to knit on my Inishmaan sweater! This is the Alice Starmore sweater I am working on for the Mara KAL. As you may recall, I am focusing on UFO's throughout the Twelve Days of Christmas and trying to get them finished up so I can enter 2009 unburdened by lingering projects.

There is no possible way I can finish this sweater during the Twelve Days of Christmas however, I can get the front finished which was my December goal. This sweater is supposed to be completed for the knitalong by mid-February.

Four Calling Birds

On the fourth day of Christmas,

my true love sent to me

Four calling birds,

Three French hens,

Two turtle doves,

And a partridge in a pear tree.

And I remembered a pair of LIZZY SOCKS I started for a family member because the pattern reminded me of her. I've lost motivation to work on them but maybe using some bright fuschia double point needles will make it a bit more fun. If not, these may end up in the frog pond because I'm really not enjoying the Wildfoote Yarn.

Three French Hens

On the third day of Christmas,

my true love sent to me Three French hens,

Two turtle doves,

And a partridge in a pear tree.

however, I wasn't thinking of French Hens but Cat Mittens.................

The verdict is still out on these. They may be frogged on December 6th because they are a wee small. The pattern is fun but I think it may work better with a sportweight yarn instead of a fingering weight yarn, we'll see.

Two Turtle Doves

On the second day of Christmas,

my true love sent to me Two turtle doves,

And a partridge in a pear tree..............

And I remembered that I once was very excited about watching the clues unfurl for the Socktoberfest Mystery Sock and somehow got distracted from finishing that second sock! I'm picking it up once again on the second day of the Twelve Days of Christmas..........

A Partridge in a Pear Tree

On the first day of Christmas,

my true love sent to me

A partridge in a pear tree......

And while he was doing that, I resumed knitting the MAD WEAVE SOCKS with the yummy Lorna Laces sportweight yarn.

12 days to work on unfinshed projects!

The Twelve Days of Christmas

I have almost finished my Christmas knitting. I'm down to one extremely large sock for my husband's extremely large foot and when I finish it I will be done, done, done!

There has been little time for knitting the languishing projects on my needles that I promised myself would be done-or-frogged by December 31st. When I saw the Twelve Days of Christmas KAL on the UFO Ravelry group I immediately decided to give myself a grace period for finishing those unfinished projects. I joined immediately.

Starting December 26th and the eleven days thereafter, you are to focus on unfinished projects and not cast on anything new. Twelve days of getting those needles free so that we can enter 2009 afresh! Perfect! Can you envision how wonderful that will be? Come join me! It is only twelve days of focused knitting...........