Still Blue, Still Stocking: The Bluestocking remains open in 2021

[ErrolTheDragon]

I've nicked a title, opened the door, dusted off the bar.

Come in and drown your sorrows, celebrate or just hang out in good company.

[lazylinguist]

Goodness- is it usually so busy in here ? Just need to elbow my way through to the bar. A foaming pint of ale for me. Something amber-ish. What's on the lunch menu? I fancy pie.

I've changed my FB background to a big suffragette flag and bought a badge in the same colours for the front of my work bag. I hope knitting is allowed in the Bluestocking ? I'm currently hand-wringing over whether I'm going to have to boycott Ravelry, the indispensable but uber-woke, knitting community site. Their Pride month homepage art is jaw-droppingly inappropriate (to anyone who prefers their knitting unadorned by furries and butt-plugs).

[EmbarrassingAdmissions]

"We deserve to have the chance to experience pregnancy too."

Comparable accounts were humorously riffing off this for the right/race to be the first TW to obtain a transplant, experience pregnancy, and then opt for an abortion.

However, there is a serious US public health point concealed in this (transmen or NBs who become pregnant and don't access official services - it should be very different in the UK):

twitter.com/gbbranstetter/status/1369448540909559810

And I will stop posting on this topic here because it's not what I meant to do in Bluestocking.

[DaisiesandButtercups]

Hi lazylinguist “waves” I have my knitting with me too. I never got into ravelry as I didn’t know about until recently, I am quite new to the interweb so I knit from patterns in books like in the olden days I have the official Harry Potter knitting book if you fancy a look.

[EmbarrassingAdmissions]

Some of us have to learn to stop eating juicy cherry tomatoes within spraying distance of a keyboard or people sitting at other tables.

Sorry all - I'll stick to the gazpacho.

[lazylinguist]

I've got the first HP knitting book, Daisies - is that the one you have? There's been a big fuss about the new one, on Ravelry and elsewhere, because the author is obvs transphobic for producing a book related to JKR's work .

[lazylinguist]

P.s. I haven't made anything from the book yet! Ahem. Apologies for the knitting-related derail, Bluestocking patrons. Ooh - I could knit some Bluestockings .

[ArabellaScott]

Just went and had a look at Ravelry. It's fab for patterns, I've never bothered with the 'social' aspect of it. I can now see it's just as well. Bloody hell.

the view over to the lake is enhanced by the crumbling stone wall, isn't it?

What a panorama! Tres bucolic!

[ArabellaScott]

Blue legwarmers, I could probably handle. Can't turn a heel, here.

[lazylinguist]

I love the heel turning. It's like magic . Legwarmers are good though. Electric blue for an even more 80s vibe. What 80s-style drinks do we have behind the bar? A dusty bottle of Babycham perhaps?

[EmbarrassingAdmissions]

What 80s-style drinks do we have behind the bar?

We still have some jars of maraschino cherries behind the bar for snowballs (and Whisky Macs).

www.eightieskids.com/12-alcoholic-drinks-anyone-who-grew-up-in-the-80s-will-remember-sampling/

[ErrolTheDragon]

I'd luuurve a Babycham.

It was the sort of drink uncles would give to teenagers if it wasn't snowball season in the 70s.

Actually I'd prefer a nice at the moment.

[ArabellaScott]

Eighties drinks - whatever you could steal from the booze cabinet, decanted into shampoo bottle to smuggle into the disco.

Why it was feasible a load of teenagers brought shampoo to the disco, I do not know, but the streets would be peppered afterwards with the frothy, scented aftermath of the youth puking up Cinzano and Vosene cockails.

[DaisiesandButtercups]

Yes that’s the one Lazylinguist, I haven’t knitted anything from it yet either but I plan to buy the new one and possibly also the crochet one too. My craft skills are not advanced but perhaps while we sit here sipping our drinks and admiring the view you can show me how you turn a heel? I have a plan to have a go a socks at some point soon.

I have a bit of a weakness for buying knitting books and patterns even though they are beyond my abilities. I get a lot of pleasure looking through them and thinking “one day…”

Ooh I always wanted to try a babysham or a snowball, they didn’t seem to exist anymore by the time I was old enough to drink. Count me in.

I wonder if they have a fondue set here. I think it was all cheese back in the day but the strawberries in the field over yonder look perfectly ripe so if they have some dark chocolate…

Surely the bluestocking sells dark chocolate, the expensive kind I hope.

[lazylinguist]

It was the sort of drink uncles would give to teenagers if it wasn't snowball season in the 70s.

I hazily remember my irresponsible parents letting me have Babycham at my grandparents' ruby wedding party when I was 14 (in 1985). I kept ordering more and had to retire squiffily to my room. I think they thought it was barely alcoholic!

Daisies my only advice on turning a heel is to get thee to Amazon and order "(Getting Started) Knitting Socks" by Ann Budd. I was totally baffled by heels, and indeed socks altogether, until I read it. Oh and right there with you on the buying of over-ambitious knitting books.

[DaisiesandButtercups]

Thanks lazylinguist will check that one out.

[GrumpyMiddleAgedWoman]

Daisies, WinnickMum is a blogger with a series of posts on how to make socks. Is v helpful, esp re Kitchener stitch to graft the toe. I'm currently knitting a baby blanket. Much easier - can be done mindlessly whilst watching telly.

Speaking of which, I have to nip home to do a spot of tidying and DIY, but does this ere pub have decent internet? I quite fancy an evening of endless g&ts while watching something undemanding and doing some equally undemanding knitting.

Has anyone fed the Camel? Or is that my job?

[SelfPortraitWithEels]

Ha ha, I have plenty of sewing patterns I'll probably never make.

Not sure, Grumpy, but could someone find some prunes for the straining gnats?

[lazylinguist]

Really worrying I've accidentally turned the cool, viper-filled Bluestocking into a W.I. meeting by mentioning knitting . Disclaimer: Ummm... not that there's anything wrong with the W.I.

[lazylinguist]

There's a camel? And goats and a cannon, right? Is my dog welcome? I think he'd get on well with the goats and camel. Time for a G&T now - the sun is definitely over the yard-arm.

[theThreeofWeevils]

The Camel will have made its own arrangements, Grumpy, never fear.
The knitting of robust socks is an entirely viperish activity. Granny Weatherwax was all for 'em, and I think she would fit right in.

[DaisiesandButtercups]

Thanks GrumpyMiddleAgedWoman, I will look that one up as well. Currently I too am knitting squares for a blanket gives me a chance to practice some different stitches and very relaxing.

I am sure that knitting doesn’t cramp the style of the cool vipers.

Lovely weather for G&T in the garden, I am off to the bar.

Dogs are welcome at the bluestocking as I recall.

[Turned]

Another newbie here. I’d like a lager shandy and a pack of prawn cocktail crisps please. I’ll be sat in the corner with my freshly downloaded Robert Galbraith novel.
I have successfully turned five heels in my knitting life. I lost my nerve on the sixth but I’ll crack it eventually.

[ErrolTheDragon]

Less of the stereotypes on the knitting... in my youth, I knew a prizewinning knitter. He took it up as a means of quitting smoking after WWI, during which he was a regimental sergeant major.


Dogs are welcome, mine is snoozing in the sunshine. He's 15 and deaf so he won't get out of your way. There is of course an area for people who are allergic or phobic, and by a trick of the acoustics, conversation flows freely regardless of where you're seated.

but does this ere pub have decent internet?

Um.....

[Waitwhat23]

If we're looking for some 80's drinks accessories, I've got some paper umbrellas, plastic flamingo sticks and pineapple chunks.

I'm personally going to go all 00's with a Smirnoff Ice with a neon straw.

[ArabellaScott]

Oooh, I'll have a Moscow Mule if we've moved onto the 90s. And then a Mochito.