Bluestocking: Do androids dream of electric hair?

[ifIwerenotanandroid]

Previously on 'The Bluestocking':
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5198256-autumn-leaves-crackling-fires-quokkas-and-puffins-at-the-bluestocking?page=40&reply=139728736

Was anyone else used as a "wool winding device" when the jumpers were being unravelled" You sit there with both hands raised and the unravelled wool is wound into skeins round them.
I used to.do this for my mum.

Yep - that’s me, @ifIwerenotanandroid.

I haven’t put it down - I have, I think finally solved my issue.

But tomorrow I shall take it to knitting group, so if I have more problems, I can call on the Hive Mind.

Good idea.

I really want to learn to crochet. I can produce a chain and build on it, which I couldn't a few months ago, but can't do anything fancy. Still, onwards and upwards.

I also had to re-point one of my knitting needles and sandpaper both of them because darling little pussycat toothmarks were snagging the yarn.

Try Bella Coco’s YouTube tutorials, @DeanElderberry - that’s how I learned.

I have said this before and I'll say it again.

My DM knits and my MIL crochets. I drink gin.

I can't crochet any more, after finding out the acrylic was making me sneeze and I'm allergic to wool and cotton was too small to be able to see it properly. So I gave all my yarn away. I still have the hooks though, they come in handy when elastic comes loose in pyjamas about once every 5 years.

When you think about it, a knitting pattern is like a software programme, isn't it?

Yes.
Sometimes when I'm refactoring code I think it's like unravelling a garment and reknitting as you go, the difficult part being it has to remain usable throughout

Puffin wool recycling

Inky, that's exactly it! X

But don't stand so near the cliff edge before you're fledged!

Good point Errol. I'll shuffle nearer the burrow.

Love the panoramic view of the puffins (but they're all cute).

Interesting thread about using AI for text:

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5217250-aibu-to-wish-people-would-stop-writing-professional-emails-with-chat-gpt?page=1

Yes! I can feel the pain in my arms as I had to hold them up for just a little longer..and longer... and longer..

But I remember it as holding what I think is called a 'hank' *of wool while my mother or granny rolled it into a ball, which involved holding your arms out as well as up for aaaaages.
Tell that to t'young folk these days....
*yep googled it, it is called a hank.

Perfect description Marie. Takes me back......

@AlisonDonut - you can get much heavier-weight cotton yarns now - up to aran weight at least.

@MarieDeGournay - posh, expensive yarns are often sold in skeins (or hanks), so you have to wind them yourself before you can use them. I have a whirly thing that the skein goes on, and a winder, but it can be temperamental, so sometimes it's just easier to hang the yarn round my neck and use myself as the winder and holder. I have occasionally persuaded a son to hold the skein, but they only fall for that once!😂

I skipped knitting this morning, in favour of a lie-in, and dh and I have spent the back end of the morning printing the labels for the Christmas cards. It got a bit fraught - I don't know why mail merge is such a bugger, but it is an absolute bugger. I am hoping that, now we've saved this year's labels, with all the tweaks needed to make them fit the label sheet, next year we'll just be able to print them. Dh assures me that the gremlins will have mucked them up again by then.

Usually what happens, Woley, is that you have to buy new label sheets and they're just enough different to screw up the whole thing!

Messing around with labels a long time ago (everything's a long time ago now), it was a game changer when it occurred to me that I could print images on them as well as text. Gerbilabels, anyone?? Welcome to the Gluestocking!!

Just rediscovered the attempts at a pub sign I was asking AI for yesterday. It worked its usual magic. I'm not sure what it thinks we get up to in here.

Before I made it ladies only, the AI put men in... clutches pearls, falls back onto chaise longue, has to be revived with a large Baileys & Tunnocks cocktail... & it was somewhat creative when it came to unasked-for musical instruments. And it spelt the name right twice, dammit.

I just want to announce that I now own a heated blanket.

Hurrah! Does it say 'Team TERF' on it?

I hope you aren't going to make those inadequately supportive frocks obligatory wear. My chest is quite capable of making a bid for freedom even from a solidly constructed bust bodice, those look very uncomfortable.

😂