Intergalactic

Author Archives: Meg Jones

• 2019 Good Intentions and Plans/2018 Review

  Posted at 2:22 pm by Meg Jones, on January 8, 2019

  I am not attempting any grand goals or setting many resolutions for 2019. 2018 was a bit of a hectic year, what with buying my first house and moving into it. But I do like to review and contemplate, so a brief look back at the year that was and a look forward into the year we’re edging into.

  When I restarted this blog, I had quite a few WiPs skulking about. I am very pleased to say that they are all FOs now, partially helped by the house move as I was galvanised into finishing so that I wouldn’t have to pack them.

  So, in 2018, I made: [* denoting where a WiP was completed]

  • Six pairs of socks (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
  • One shawl
  • One pair of wrist-warmers
  • Three crochet blankets (1*, 2*, 3)
  • A jumper*
  • A Dwarven Beard

  I also completed two small embroideries and started a few more WiPs! Mostly relating to English Paper Piercing.

  So, that was a whistle-stop tour of 2018.

  What does 2019 hold? Certainly a fair amount of DIY (some of which may appear on the blog; I have yet to decide on that, some of which is going to be boring home-ownership related, like replacing parts of roofs and adding more insulation.) and a focus on stash usage across my crafty pursuits ( which should be easier now that all my craft crap can live in a room of its own), so I can afford such exciting things as…more insulation and a roof that isn’t likely to leak unexpectedly.

  Handily, Louise from Knit British has brought the Good Intentions Club back again (Rav thread with 2019’s dates), which focuses on matching the patterns in your library with the stash you have, so I’ll be drawing on that as my main inspiration for 2019. So far, I have only picked two Good Intentions and they are for Quarter 1, Oliver’s Hat, for which I have the yarn bought specifically for it in the stash and Quarter 2 will be a Carbeth Cardigan, the yarn for which I got as birthday present.

  And on the crochet side of things, I got the yarn pack for the latest Attic24 CAL, the Sweetpea blanket for Christmas, so while I am not going to be racing to keep up with the CAL, I am going to be doing a gentle CAL with my knitting workmate J over 2019.

  I’m also test knitting for fellow OUaSer Kat – yarn from the stash is ready to go! – over the next few weeks as well as doing very well with my current sock WiP of the Beaufort Socks, which I bought as a kit and so had in the stash. (5-ply yarn on 2.5mm needles is whizzy!). There will continue to be sock projects that are as of yet undecided because I am not short of sock yarn in the stash.

  Related to my stashbusting; I am not going on a yarn ban but I am going to try not buy skeins that I don’t need. I have a couple gift vouchers that can come into play (one of them is tentatively earmarked for a project that may turn up later in the year.) but really, I have enough to be getting on with and enough other WiPs to complete that 2019 should be going along fine.

  Got any grand plans for 2019?

  Posted in Crochet, Finished Objects, General, Knitting | 0 Comments | Tagged goodintentions, grandplans, stashbusting, yearinreview

• Once Upon a Sock – January 2019

  Posted at 1:16 pm by Meg Jones, on January 3, 2019

  January 2019! January 2019! What is that even. *Kermit flail*

  It’s the first Thursday of the month (and the first Thursday of 2019! whaaaat!), which means it is is Once Upon a Sock time, a link-up for blog posts about handmade socks in whatever stage they’re in. Hosted by the lovely Paula of Spin a Yarn, you should definitely join us.

  I hope you all had lovely holidays – mine definitely involved a fair bit of crafting, quite a bit of family visiting us (we hosted my parents from the 23rd to the 28th and my mother and sister in law and my nephew on that side came round for Boxing Day.), much food/grazing on chocolate and plenty of fizz. And a distinct lack of being up before the sun rises (yes, going back to work yesterday was a shock to the system.)

  But now it is January, the shiny start to a shiny new year (hemhem), so best foot forward and all – I have finished socks to share! Behold, my completed Parkamoor socks! Fresh off the needles yesterday so technically, my first FO of 2019!

  

  They’re knitted in Regia’s Pairfect which are designed to give you the best chance of starting at the same point for an entirely matching pair. Mine are in Anthracite, which is meant to be a sort of ombre grays but you can’t really see much of the ombre, so it’s a light leg and a dark foot! Oh well!

  It’s a lovely pattern though and I’m not just saying that because they’re by fellow OUaSer, Katherine! The cables are neatly designed and give enough brainpower to keep you thinking. Also, excellent cabling without a cable needle instructions, if you’ve ever wanted to try that.

  Although, I will admit that as these were my knitting while moving house pair, there are one or two quirks to mine that are not as written! Chiefly, I forgot two cm knit plain stocking stitch after the cables and went straight into the heel on the first sock, which meant I had to do the same on the second so I didn’t have one leg longer than the other (didn’t spot that until I was casting on for sock two.) and secondly, I entirely failed to do eye of the partridge and just did slip stitch on the heel. Oops! (There was also some immediately after the movers left knitting where I forgot that you decrease a gusset on every second row and knitted/ripped back the world’s tiniest gusset. )

  But aside from those operator errors, I am already planning a second pair, this time with the after-thought heel in the future!

  I have a another post to come about last year/this year’s crafting plans so I shan’t go into too much detail but I have cast on (having unpacked my yarn and needles now), the first in a pair of Beaufort socks, in the pattern yarn, which I bought as a kit early last year. It’s a 5-ply (or Gansey weight) in a lovely rusty orange so I look forward to having pictures of something more exciting than the toe to show in the future.

  

  Posted in Finished Objects, Knitting, Once Upon A Sock | 6 Comments | Tagged onceuponasock, socks

• Once Upon a Sock – December 2018

  Posted at 1:19 pm by Meg Jones, on December 6, 2018

  It’s Once Upon a Sock time, where a passel of bloggers gather together on the first Thursday of the month to talk about socks (big or small, in progress or completed!) via the medium of a linkup hosted by the lovely Paula.

  You should join us!

  We’ve moved into our house, which is very exciting, although it is still home to box mountain (albeit one where the mountain is now a series of small hills, scattered in different rooms) and my yarn boxes have not yet fully reappeared. (eek!)

  But, luckily, I had some socks to wrangle in preparation for this eventuality! Below are my completed (and unmissable, even in the boxes) uneek toe up socks. They’re definitely eye catching and I’m quite glad I went for a vanilla sock as I think any patterning would have been overwhelmed by the colours and colour changes.

  I’ve still got enough leftover that I could knit some contrast trainer socks similar to my recent rose city rollers or some Bubble and Squeak mittens which is also tempting. I think the colour variation would work quite well with those.

  • 

  • 

  With those off the needles just before the move, I made sure I had the next pair ready to go and cast on for Katherine’s Parkamoor socks for a bit of light cabling. They’re trundling along nicely after a bit of post-move brainfarting, where I settled down after the movers had gone and promptly forgot that you don’t decrease on every row of a gusset! Tiiiiiny gusset and some ripping back later and we were back on track! I’m currently rapidly approaching the toe on sock number one.

  I’m using Regina’s Pairfect in Anthracite, which is a ombre-y yarn, although it is very hard to capture the changes in this particular colourway in a photo, so it does look like it just goes light to dark with no intermediate colours in between!

  

  One other move that happened recently is that I’ve moved my domain (internet home since 2000!) over to this blog. There is still some work in the back end but you can now reach the blog at intergalactic.nu instead of the wordpress url. Hooray!

  

  Posted in Finished Objects, Knitting, Once Upon A Sock | 6 Comments | Tagged onceuponasock, socks

• Once Upon a Sock – November 2018

  Posted at 1:12 pm by Meg Jones, on November 1, 2018

  It’s, terrifyingly, the first of November! Aaaaahhhhhhh! But that does mean that it is Once Upon a Sock time. Hooray!

  If you blog about socks (knitted or crocheted, completed or WiP), you should come join our link up, which is hosted by Paula over at Spin a Yarn – we’d be very glad to have you.

  I am still mid-packing for our house move. We got the keys last week (which I still can’t believe, tbh) and we’ll be fully moved in by mid-November but despite all that, I am making steady progress on the current socks. They’re toe up, Two at a Time in Uneek Sock Yarn, which is designed to create close to identical socks. I’ve done the heels on mine (fish lip kiss) and they are pretty consistent – one is probably 3/4 of a row ahead of the other and I suspect that is gauge related and you can only really tell if you’re looking really closely/actively knitting it.

  The yarn is a bit splitty and I am using very sharp needles, so that is more of an issue for me but, they are cheery and the simple round and round knitting is a lifesaver for turning my brain off in the evenings.

  

  I am thinking that the next pair might be Katharine of Fibre and Sustenance’s Parkamoor socks. I haven’t decided which yarn yet but I best make that decision asap before the yarn boxes are out of my reach!

  

  Posted in Knitting, Once Upon A Sock | 9 Comments | Tagged onceuponasock, socks

• FO: Byatt Shawl

  Posted at 1:40 pm by Meg Jones, on October 12, 2018

  

  My Byatt has been completed since July but has been unsung on the blog since. Partially because it’s a tricky one to photo – the wingspan on mine is at least 2m (which made blocking fun) and also because it has been mostly living around my neck as we settle into the unsettled temperatures of Autumn in the UK.

  But no longer! I have taken some photos and it is getting its FO post before it goes back round my neck in the arctic wasteland that is my office right now.

  

  

  

  Knitted in an entire skein of lovely squishy Stranded Dyeworks Merino Nylon (formerly Oasis) as the MC (plus a smidgen of Debonnaire Shimmer Sock, kindly donated as an emergency yarn transplant by knitting friend J, as I played and lost yarn chicken/stuffed up the increases at some point) and Truly Hooked Sparkly Sock for the CC. The Stranded Dyework’s was purchased at a pop at YAK on LYS Day 2017 and the Truly Hooked was a Yarndale 2017 purchase. Both would be purchased again.

  I’ve knitted a lot of Karie’s shawls and I always enjoy them – they’ve always got something that keeps me hooked into the knitting and the shaping on this one is a nice change from the usual triangle. I even didn’t mind the garter stitch.

  This was also my Good Intention’s Quarter 3 project, over in the KnitBritish Ravelry group. I shall post more about my Good Intentions Projects at a later date but I do believe it will be running again, which is great news. I definitely have to knit from stash next year, what with shortly to be possessing a mortgage. *shocked face emoji*

   

  Posted in Finished Objects, Knitting | 0 Comments | Tagged FO, Good Intentions, Shawls, Stashdown

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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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  Starting my #swirlsandstripessocks if I ever find the end on this rainbow yarn barf. 😂 Setting my goal to have them done for Worthing Pride in July. 🌈

  *started the border klaxon* I’ve reached the border on my #attic24sweetpeacal blanket! Hooray! Jess will be so pleased as she’ll be able to snooze under it without me moving it to start a new row etc. 😂

  Much loved cat toy vs new replacement. Definitely a ‘what you are now, I once was/what I am now, you will be’ situation. 😹

  First ripe strawberries from the pots! Very tasty! Very pleased!

  Took part in a ‘how do you commute’ challenge with @uniofbrightonkatie at work and got a shiny eco cup for my troubles. 😁

  Used up the two egg whites from yesterday’s hollandaise in some Forgotten Cookies from Nigella. Did find that my oven cools down way too quickly to do them overnight but they were easily rescued this morning.

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