Intergalactic

Author Archives: Meg Jones

• Once Upon a Sock – September

  Posted at 12:23 pm by Meg Jones, on September 6, 2018

  It’s Once Upon A Sock time and I am bountiful with socks. 😉

  

   

  First up – my pair of completed Helical Beeeees, which are going to my mother this weekend. I have (had?) a better photo so I will swap that out later but there they are, in their fraternal, black and yellow stripey-ness. I really enjoyed the helical stripes (yay, new technique), and the ease of after-thought heels, I just didn’t love the fit of that particular spiral decrease heel, so I will likely try after-thought again but with a different heel type.

   

   

  As soon as I finished those, I cast on for a new pair of socks and they are, as I thought about in the last OUaS, a pair of ankle socks, using up some WYS Rum Paradise and the remains of the Truly Hooked Sparkle from my Byatt shawl (which still needs a proper completed item post!). I’m using the Rose City Rollers pattern and I’m doing the heel and toe in the Truly Hooked Sparkle. I’m already one sock down and mid-way through the heel flap on the second sock now.

  

  

  My only problem so far is that I am doing eye of partridge on the heel flap and if I put it down, it takes me ages to work out what row I should be on. Oops! But it makes such a nice heel flap that I can’t resist it.

  I am also reminded how much I like Rum Paradise – it’s so cheerful!

  Other sock plans for the future involve Kat’s lovely Swirl socks, which I look forward to raiding my leftover yarn stash for and also experimenting with a new to me sock yarn called Uneek, which I picked up at Tribe during last weekend’s GLYC. I do like the idea of a pair of TAAT stripy socks! Thinking toe up and fish kiss heel.

  

  Come join us on the first Thursday of the month to talk about socks. Paula at Spin a Yarn hosts the link up and it would be lovely to have you, whether you’ve got a completed sock or one that has been on the needles since the 20th century. 😉

   

   

   

   

  Posted in Finished Objects, Once Upon A Sock | 7 Comments | Tagged onceuponasock, socks

• Yarnalong – September

  Posted at 1:53 pm by Meg Jones, on September 5, 2018

  It’s Yarnalong time, which, argh, argh, means it is September. I work in academia so this means not long until the students return, noooarrghhh.

  

  Knitting wise, I have completed my helical bee socks and cast on for a new pair but I shall leave that for for tomorrow’s OuaS post. What I have been doing is continuing on with my English Paper Piercing and I finished one of the two Crochet blankets I had in the WiP pile. Motivated by a) seeing my mother this coming weekend b) the thought of not having to pack and move* it. 😉

  It is a Attic24 Hydrangea stripe blanket but using the colour pack from her Moorland blanket, at the request of my mother. I plan to take proper photos once I’ve handed it over.

  Reading wise, I have been quite productive. I read the following:

  • Julian of Norwich: A Very Brief History by Dr Janina Ramirez
  • The Private Lives of the Saints: Power, Passion and Politics in Anglo-Saxon England
  • Elizabeth I: A Study in Insecurity by Dr Helen Castor

  And I’m in the middle of Handywoman by knitwear designer Kate Davies, which I would already recommend picking up.

  Other than that, last Saturday saw me tromping around London as part of Team Knightsbridge as part of the Great London Yarn Crawl. I may have bought a few things but when visiting such lovely shops, how could one resist? We went to Tribe, RayStitch, Fabrications and Stag and Bow on our route and crisscrossed London in the process.

  *Thoughts about house-buying process in England currently mostly unfit to print but slowly, slowly getting there.

   

   

  Posted in Crochet, Knitting, Yarnalong | 0 Comments | Tagged books, Yarnalong

• Once Upon a Sock – August 2018

  Posted at 7:06 pm by Meg Jones, on August 2, 2018

  It is OuaS time again, the Monthly link up of fellow sock makers! You should join us!

  

  Still not an awful lot of knitting happening at the moment but I have finished one Helical Bee sock. I am…not loving this particular heel on me and the foot is a tiny bit too short, which is a pity. However, I have just been back up in Yorkshire and it fits my mother, who loves handknit socks, to a tee so I shall be donating them to her once I’ve knitted the second one. Which I plan to cast on for shortly, in the hopes that it will be slightly less hot and sticky soon.

  I am still loving the helical stripes though, so they will definitely make a reappearance in future socks for sure!

  I am very tempted to try see if I can squeeze a pair of ankle socks out of some leftover WYS’s Rum Paradise as inspired by Paula‘s post for this month as my next pair of socks!

  I might wear the full size pair I do have to Brighton Pride on Saturday (I’m in the parade, walking with Girl Guiding UK in my guise as a Guide Leader.) but I may make the final decision on the day as the weather is meant to be 27 degrees C, which might be a bit much for wool socks and a very long walk!

  Posted in Knitting, Once Upon A Sock | 8 Comments | Tagged onceuponasock, socks

• Oops!

  Posted at 12:41 pm by Meg Jones, on July 24, 2018

  I missed Once Upon a Sock due to various things but as I hadn’t made any further sock progress at the time, it’s probably better deferred to next time.

  I haven’t really managed a huge amount of anything, really. This heat, while lovely on paper, is sapping my will to live. I am much better suited to a dry heat and a country that has built for heat (I was born and mostly raised in Gauteng – formerly part of the Transvaal province – in South Africa) – than I am for a humid heat in a country where buildings are designed to retain heat (my office in particular – it’s 28c in here right now, with three fans on and all the blinds shut.).

  What limited brainpower I have is also currently occupied with terrifying/exciting (I windmill between the two emotions) legal paperwork and solicitors as t’hb and I are hopefully buying a house! It has been a plan for years but it all seems to have kicked off in the last month with our offer on a house being accepted. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaahh! Fingers crossed that searches and surveys etc. all go smoothly.

  I have managed to do a bit more sock and on one of the crochet blankets and I am embarking on a online English Paper Piercing class with my old flat/blogmate, TJ, which we are using as a way to recreate our previous crafty life together/hangout despite living in different cities now.

  I have done EPP before and find it quite soothing, so although I am only one motif in, it has been nice to have something very small and quick to do when brain is awake/not wrangling legal stuff/herding solicitors (as an ex-law librarian, I am very skilled in that latter part.) and that isn’t too hot.

  As for the crochet shawl for my brother’s wedding? Not happening. A combination of miscounting and a really sticky yarn means it is hiding in the naughty corner. It was a nice to have and I will probably rescue the yarn or pick it up again when I am less bear of little brain/less deadline driven.

   

  Posted in General | 0 Comments | Tagged Crochet, EPP

• Yarn Along – July 2018

  Posted at 2:27 pm by Meg Jones, on July 4, 2018

  It is Yarnalong time!  From sweltering (who knew?) Brighton, where, I must admit knitting has been limited as I am trying not to cast on any new projects and all my other projects are either not for public consumption yet or too bloody hot to sit under/near in this heat.

  Knitting wise, I have completed my Byatt shawl, with the kind help of my work knitting friend and a little bit of a shawl-to-shawl transplant, after I lost my game of Yarn Chicken with three and half rows/6 increases to go. Luckily, J was knitting a shawl in a very similar grey and let me steal a bit from the other end of the ball to finish the MC/CC slip-stitch section off successfully. It is blocking at the moment and then I hope to briefly take photos before I have to fling it off me again.

  

  I have started one WiP though, for all my bluster above, which is a Silene Shawl in some seriously ancient Stash Yarn (this being from the Des Res in West Kensington era of the Stash Archaeology so, ooooh, late 2000s. )  in the hopes that I will have a completed shawl in time for my brother’s wedding at the end of July. It’s um, possible but we shall see. It’s always good to have a goal, right?

   

  Bookwise, I’ve been rereading the Anne of Green Gables series and I am making a concentrated effort to finish  Ron Chernow’s Hamilton biography. It’s not that it’s not really interesting; it’s just very dense and I have reached the Reynolds’ Pamphlet part, which if you are into Hamilton, is where I spend a lot of time clutching at my face and yelping “Yooooou fooooool, Alexander!’

   

   

  Posted in Crochet, Knitting, Yarnalong | 4 Comments | Tagged books, Yarnalong

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  Hello! I’m Meg, a librarian by day and a crafter by night. And any other time I can manage. Currently resident in (sometimes) sunny Brighton, UK.

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  Found some more stranded lights in a box today so now the stairs are decked for Christmas! (And I don’t have to put the hall light on to get upstairs! 😂)

  Productive morning so far, one #hobbycraft inspired rustic star wreath and I only hot glued my finger once! (Possibly a bit too windy to put it on the door today though! 💨)

  The first week’s worth of this year’s M&S calendar. Off work today so thinking the elasticater will be in use today.

  No good way to take a photo that doesn’t involve box mountain(s) but our first proper Xmas tree is up and decorated. 🎄🎄

  Teach me to grab a bag of pretzels without looking too closely in this our time of salted caramel inappropriateness. 🤢🤢🤢

  Omg! This combines many of my favourite things! 🤣🤣🤣 #notthrowingawaymyshot

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