The Bluestocking - where the laugh emoji is sorely missed.

[MyrtleLion]

Welcome to the Bluestocking Arms!

The company is always sparkling, the drinks are always sublime, and the cakes are mysteriously free from gluten, sugar, calories, and troublesome booze… not that you’d ever notice. 😏

Our enthusiastic team of gerbil waitstaff is ably supported by capybaras, quokkas, and other charming creatures who excel at their jobs while looking outrageously adorable.

You will find many things to laugh at - usually out loud - so take care not to spit out your tea. We are considering a petition for the return of the laugh emoji - just as soon as the AI gerbils learn how to spell.

New Bluestockingers are always welcome. Men can pop along to The Staunch Ally nearby.

Currently also knitting a Woolly Hug blanket for Bluestockinger Swashbuckled. Details here if you can knit or crochet a square before the 18 July.

www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/5350941-woolly-hugs-desperately-sad-news-we-are-afraid-making-a-blanket-for-lovely-swashbuckled-whose-son-has-tragically-died

Excellent! I want to make a knitted square, but I'm a bit scared of it coming out the wrong size. WIth crochet, at least you can start in the centre & work outwards - with knitting you're committed from the off.

You're doing my head in again, Android - something that you start in the middle??
Only kidding, I have a notion of how crochet works

I like crochet because it's almost impossible to drop stitches.

😄

I like crochet because if it goes wrong you can frog it merrily back to the mistake, and then only have to pick up one stitch.

I've got two squares finished. The next two are going to be a bit more adventurous.

That’s one of the reasons why I like it too, and it works up much more quickly than knitting.
I've done four squares, not sure there’s enough yarn for a fifth. I’ll try to get a photo tomorrow.

I don't like crochet or knitting.

< Runs away to hide in book/painting/ embroidery/ gardening corner>

I think we need a lobby thread regarding the laughing emoji

I can crochet straight lines but have forgotten how to do circles and the magic circle thing. I used to make doilies when I was a child and had learned to crochet, but it appears that the last "few" years have erased that knowledge. I've read books, websites, watched videos but can't get my head around it all now.

Corrie ten Boom - wow, that brought back memories of school. We studied her and Gladys Aylward at my all girls' junior school, they were amazing women.

It's soooooooooo warm today. I'm literally a boiled beetle!

Budge up

Crochet is a damn sight faster, and you can make fun shapes with it easily (animal outlines, that sort of thing), but knitting has more stretch for jumpers and socks...

@RumNotRun I read Gladys Aylward's story too. China must have felt incredibly far from home back then.

I want to make a knitted square, but I'm a bit scared of it coming out the wrong size.

For me 33 stitches on size 4 needles with the merino yarn gives just under 6". Better to be slightly under as it's stretchy.
When the fabric can be folded in a triangle under the needle, it's a square and can be cast off on the next row in the right side.

I generally knit about six rows and measure the width. You might knit more loosely or tightly so go up or down 2 stitches to see your width.

I have unravelled the previous attempt and then another one, as I am tired. I need to stop when I'm tired because I drop stitches and have to start again.

But I'm learning and it's much neater on the purling rows.

And much easier to 🐸than knitting.

And you can do lots of projects at once with a single hook.

I can't remember when I heard of Corrie ten Boom - I had no idea she was taught about in schools. Maybe it was when my youth group was asked for volunteers to be extras in her biopic, in the 1970s. I didn't fancy it at all.

I read some of her books & went to Haarlem to see her house - & it was shut!! Well, at least I saw the outside, & Haarlem station & St Bavo's, which are mentioned in her books. Just googled the house & it opened as a museum in 1988, so I was 2 or 3 years too early!

There’s an easy way to knit squares on the diagonal - thank you for reminding me. This way you don’t have to decide how many stitches right from the start.

For a garter stitch square.

Simplest method
Cast on 3 stitches using any method you like.

Increase rows
You are knitting a triangle.
Knit 1, increase 1, knit to the end of the row.
Repeat that row until the two sides not on the needle measure 6” (for me this is 45 stitches on the needle)

2 rows straight ( no increases)

Decrease rows
Your rows get shorter to turn the triangle into a square.
Knit 1, decrease 1, knit to the end of the row
Repeat this row until you only have 2 stitches on the needle.
Decrease 1.

You can increase and decrease by any method you know.
Here are simple methods:
Increase 1 - Yarn over, knit 1
or Knit front and back into the same stitch.
Decrease 1 - knit 2 together

Prettier square
Cast on 3 stitches using cable method
Slip 1 with yarn in back (= s1wyib), k1, yo, p1
Increase rows
Every row: K2, yo, k to last stitch, s1wyib

When two sides measure 6” - for me that’s 45 stitches on the needle
s1wyib, knit to end
s1wbyib, knit to end

Decrease rows
K2, yo, s1 K2tog psso, k to last stitch, s1wyib

I’ll check this on Friday or Saturday, it’s past my bedtime now.

My last post has been hidden. Did I report it instead of editing it, by mistake?
What I meant to do was to correct the ‘p1’ to a ‘k1’

There are only knit stitches in the instructions, no purled ones.

The image says it all.

Wrong knitting.

I want the laugh emoji back.

Yesterday was very furstrating (I'm not correcting that spelling, ongoing cat moult during hot humid weather was part of the pattern) - lots of minor things - heat, bees all over the place, the internet connection blinking on and off all day so sometimes I could read stuff, but I had little chance of reacting (and an attempt to play the daily solitaire means my statistics show an easy tripeaks game taking 17+ hours instead of ca 55 seconds), and slight dread of a celebratory dinner with the crafty ladies - eating out involves trying to work out what exactly is implied by a menu that claims some items simultaneously contain grains while also being gluten free.

Getting there and back featured long stretches of winding country roads stuck behind a car driven by a cautious little old lady, and being unable to mutter and swear because I guessed it was a pal (though not which pal). Also sadness because that bit of the county has a lot more visible ash die-back damage that we have, yet. I felt I was seeing a sad future.

Food was okay, company was excellent.

I need to peruse the last day and half's posts.

Are the gerbils doing Tunisian crochet, and getting confused?

I can’t.

Whatever it was, it was probably against the guidelines...

I wouldn't worry. Some people don't like our lighthearted chats about gerbils and report our posts.

They're just jealous.

hahahahaha so funny!

I'm glad the company was excellent - that is the main thing. Food definitely comes second!

Wouldn't it be nice to have the 😆 back? I so enjoyed reading these funny and witty posts.

Meanwhile, lovely @Swashbuckled is in my thoughts. I am knitting a square, I've done two, each stitch is permeated with loving kindness.

Deano,
Getting there and back featured long stretches of winding country roads stuck behind a car driven by a cautious little old lady,
I feel your pain. Men who drive wearing hats - come behind one of those and you know you're doomed. Pottering along at 40mph on a nice straight stretch of 60mph, and you can't overtake because of an oncoming hatchback/ tractor/ motorbike.
Also Topbox Tourists who find the narrow roads terrifying, and brake when anything comes towards them, even if there is loads of space to pass. Or, for variety, keep trundling forward so that they meet the oncoming van at the narrowest point, rather than slowing along the wider stretch...
I was stuck behind a pony and trap the other day, but I didn't mind that, and they pulled over into a gateway for me to pass and we all waved at one another. Well, not the pony, obvs, he was eyeing the nice grassy verge.

Also sadness because that bit of the county has a lot more visible ash die-back damage that we have, yet. I felt I was seeing a sad future.
Feel your pain there, too.

Just been listening to "Dignity" by Deacon Blue and it reminded me of Swashy. I wonder if her ship is called "Dignity"?