The Bluestocking Women’s Pub - Where Everybody Knows Your Username

[MarieDeGournay]

Welcome to the Bluestocking Arms, the home of good company, excellent drinks and delicious cakes which magically have no irksome contents like gluten or sugar or calories or the kind of alcohol that causes problems - but you wouldn't know

Food and drink are served by a keen staff of gerbils, and other animals such as capybaras, quokkas, etc., also fulfil vital roles, while looking cute AF.

New Bluestockingers always welcome.

When dd was very little she would get sick every time we went on a plane during landing (often at take off as well but not always). Once when she had some milk during the flight she threw up as usual and it landed in dp's shoe. He had a squelchy shoe smelling faintly of partly fermented milk all the way to my parents house. She is 20 now and still "you puked into my shoe" comes up now and then.

My feeling is that 'dogs, just why?' is a core part of the project. The mutual domestication project being carried out by the wolves and apes caught the aliens attention, and 3 or four millennia ago they established the cats as their researchers.

They watch what we're up to and communicate telepathically with the core any time they learn something noteworthy.

I once had a cat who understood dogs tolerably well, and would chase dogs much bigger than him who wandered onto his territory.

Then one day someone visited who had a shih tzu, and the cat just sat there and stared at it in bafflement.

.

Brilliant - that’s not that wonky at all! I think you may have found you have a hidden talent! Before long you will be looking at Debbie Bliss patterns (well not this years, they’re rank) and coveting all the shades. 🥰

Well Catholics in olden days swore we were fish.

Fuzzycats would prefer fish.

Thank you!

Somehow I worked out how to pull the tension tight as I then start the next stitch and suddenly my hands looked like my DM's when she knitted really fast.

Some purling. You can see the stocking stitch where I changed.

I can't get the wool pulled as tight for purling as knitting because it's the other way round and I haven't worked out which way to hold the yarn. But I think my knitting tension is too tight. So I may end up doing stocking stitch to keep it less tight.

I have managed to increase the stitches as well!

I think I can knit about half an inch an hour.

I wonder how much easier it will be with knitting needles and merino DK...

@MyrtleLion honestly with proper needles and a quality yarn and it becomes so much easier. The designs I posted above are just knit stitch and purl. And the patterns hide a multitude of sins, so you’ll master this by the weekend at this rate!

Myrtle, it is loads easier with proper kit. I never thought I'd manage more than a misshapen hat, and I make socks and all sorts now.

Is there a DogsNet? Brains would like to know:
Why is every snack not mine?
Why are some sky raisins chilli flavoured?
Where can I get the £££ to buy myself a massive stash of salami?
Batshit on the other hand:
When I went to slip the sun was shining and now I have woked up and its dark. Wat happened? (Sunset. Happens every day.)
Why cant I cach treets in mid air like Brians? (Poor mouth/eye co-ordination.)
Why do you cal me stupit? (Because you are.)

well i applaud all the knitters and all things knitting for Swashy.

But not my thing. Does anybody remember the drumming gorilla advert for cadburys?

I remembered the original song on the day of the SC ruling, and played it in my head.

Anyway, the drum rift is well goodish and for some reason i looked it up tonight. I thought Beatle would be an ideal candidate for our version.

Or we could have a staunch alley music festival, for anyone who likes a good stomp.

it doesn’t have to be any particular genre, any anthem music would be welcomed.

I am unable to create AI myself.

There is a Dogsnet!

😁

Well I've been working on the permanent Bluestocking most of today [for newcomers - it's a model Bluestocking that I'm making from scratch - great fun/occasional heartache like when I accidentally hoover up something I've spent ages crafting😢] and I've just called in to see what I've missed, Mostly cats and knitting, I see.

Some great cat stories. I think cats are beautiful [and of course all the
Bluestockingers' cats are especially beautiful] but I've never had a domestic animal and prefer to admire other people's from a distance.

And well done to all the knitters, esp Myrtle who gets the Oscar for Most Enterprising Knitting Needle Substitution!

If you pop in, dear Swash, 💙 always.

Speaking of cats, one of our old ones was a shocking tea leaf and would sometimes bring gifts it had nicked from the kitchens of anyone in the area silly enough to leave their back door open.

One night it came home with a whole string of uncooked sausages in its mouth.

I thought it would never top that, but then another night it came home with a packet of Birds Eye cod in parsley sauce.

It i said that “In the air tonight” was about Phil Collins divorce.

I am not so sure as there are a few lines in it that says to me he saw something wrong and wrote about it.

I will always remember on the 16th April 2025, i was working in one of my gardens. I looked on my phone MN, blow by blow account of the judgement scrolled fast to the end, and there it was. All we could have hoped for.

It was really warm I held my arms in the air and this song played in my head as i spun around arms out enjoying the light of day.

So here are the lyrics, that rang in my head, on the day that the trans mantra died.

“……….

Well If you told me you were drowning, i would not lend a hand,
I have seen your face before my friend
But i don’t know if you know who I am

Well i was there and i saw what you did
I saw it with my own two eyes
So you can wipe off that grin
i know where you’ve been

its all been a pack of lies.

I remember (remember) don’t worry
How can i ever forget

It’s the first time, the last time, we ever met.
but i know why you keep your silence up.

No you do not fool me
Well the hurt does not show
but the pain still grows
It’s no stranger to you and me.

I can feel it coming in the air tonight

I have been waiting for this moment all my life

Oh lord oh lord.

Apologies for my emotional outburst.

Catching up on 239 posts since I last looked. This made me HOOT! A canon 😂

😂

🤣🤣🤣

No need to apologise for that in this pub, @Bannedontherun!

Perfect for the Blue Stocking!

I'm just waiting for dh to get back from Halfords, and then we will be setting off southwards. He's had to go to get the aircon regassed, because it's going to be 24 degrees in Suffolk this weekend, so we will need it working.

We were hoping to be setting off about now, but it looks like it will be closer to 11.30, so we'll get there later. Ho hum.

It’s a long trek to Suffolk even from the north of England. The A14 seems interminable! Do you have favourite break points?

Have a good journey Woley, and a lovely time with the little ones

I've been reading border ballads this morning, they are so deeply moving although they are formulaic and ancient and so familiar.

'But plait a wand o' bonnie birk
And lay it on my breast;
And shed a tear upon my grave,
And wish my saul gude rest.

And fair Marg'ret, and rare Marg'ret,
And Margr'et o' veritie,
Gin [if] e'er ye love another man,
Ne'er love him as he did me'
from Clerk Saunders.

That last two lines get me every time😢

And when I'm listening to Anachie Gordon for the hundredth and somethingth time I still think No! Don't do it Jeannie! Anachie is nearly here! He's coming home on the tide! No Jeannie, Nooooo!' every single time.

[There's a video on YouTube of a very very young Mary Black singing it in a lovely, clear, stand-up-and-sing-it-out-straight ballad style, but the link didn't work when I tried to post it here, some I've come back and edited it out]

But the really exciting bit I found this morning in The Gay Goss-Hawk was the word 'bigly'!
I thought it was a made-up pseudo-Trumpism, but there it is:
'She has ta'en to her bigly bour
As fast as she could fare'.

Nice to start the day by filling in one of the many gaps in my knowledge

I've just spotted a howler in my post, it should be
Gin [if] e'er ye love another man,
Ne'er love him as YE did me' !

I accidentally gayed Clerk Saunders, which he wasn't, unlike the Gay Goss-Hawk😃