The Bluestocking - the one where the nights start to draw in

[Boiledbeetle]

Previous thread:

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5401672-the-autumn-bluestocking-mist-mellow-fruitfulness-and-hot-chocolate

Settles down in the comfy chair by the fire.

Yay, Taz!

Oh wow I missed this! That's fantastic! Congratulations to you. Good luck with publication.

I have also written a book of poems which will be published in February. The publisher is nagging me to get pre-orders at a discounted price but sadly they don't ship outside the US, which is a real pain in the butt but on the other hand they are they only publishers who have picked up my ms so...

I also discovered that postage to the UK is hella expensive, so a book currently available for £7 now and £11 in February will cost an additional £3 to be shipped to me in the US and on top of that another staggering £14.50 to be shipped to the UK. Not many people are happy to pay £25 or £29 for a book of poems by a poet who is minor and obscure. If anybody feels that reckless, DM me and I'll make it happen, though it will involve some outing on both our parts.

Yay, Britinme, too! Hope you manage to rustle up some pre-orders in the States.

Woop woop well done you

I really do have news now.

I’m going to be a granny again

shhhhhh it’s a secret

Congratulations, @Taztoy !

All the best to you and the parents 💕

Thanks!! This is no3 grandchild but the first for dd and her partner.

I may have cried just a little.

Now to get the hook out and do a wheatsheaf shawl and a call the midwife blanket. ::)))))

Oh congratulations!

She tested this evening and was ringing me then her partners parents then her dad then the siblings. 🥰🥰🥰

I've been a bit stressed with health stuff, so it's really nice to drop by and hear everyone's good news.

Here's a snow leopard kitten doing his Pilates

Congratulations Taz & calming capybara back rubs for Foxy.💙💙

Congratulations on the grandbaby too @Taztoy :-)

Thanks. I wonder will it be a girl this time (the other two are boys)

Congratulations, books and babies!

Lovely news from you today Taz - books, grandbabies.. Congratulations!🍾

Hope the sláinte gets completely maith again soon, Sionnach

Books, grand babies and a lovely snow leopard.
Hurrah for the Bluestocking...and congratulations to all.

Does the snow leopard have a home in the Bluey? Hope so.

Sorry I’ve not been around much. Just catching up with everyone’s news. Congrats on the boom and the latest grandchild @Taztoy . Get well soon @SionnachRuadh - I’m sure Bessie will have some wisdom for you. I love that Persian blanket @SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius - look forward to seeing it made up. And I am loving @MyrtleLion ’s prolific square knitting. The bobbles are particularly impressive - I have never had the patience for them. I can recommend socks and hats. I am in a hat phase at the moment. The signature pattern for this year’s Shetland Wool Week is particularly fun. I think I am now on my sixth one (guess what everyone is getting for Christmas?!). Highly recommended. This is one of them blocking itself on a balloon.

That is gorgeous. Is it fair isle / intarsia or self striping?

Thank you.😍 Fair isle. There are three variants to the pattern using between 5 and 8 colours. I’ve done a few of each but think I like the eight colour one best.

That's fabulous Alexandra. I am in awe.

Alexandra, thank you for another example of the wonderful knitting skills of Bluestockingers, that hat is lovely.
And you have provided one of those sentences that you don't think you'd ever come across, and that really really need to be read in context😁
'This is one of them blocking itself on a balloon.'

Have any of you considered knitting.....blue stockings?🤔
That said, I remember the Everest followed by K2 of learning to turn the heel😬

One for Pedantry Corner - well more a linguistic quirk really - the phrase 'in your stocking feet' survived after stockings had become socks - nobody says 'don't run around in your sock feet'.

I suppose with central heating it's less life-threatening to run around in your stocking feet these days, but when we were little we were warned by my granny not to do so because of two possible outcomes:
[a] You'll catch your death
and
[b] You'll get a chill in your kidneys. 😄

It was always 'in your stocking soles' when I was growing up, but yes it's interesting that it has survived the transition to socks and/or tights.

Further to my idea of knitted [by somebody else, obvs] blue stockings..
you can buy soles for knitted slipper socks, y'know.... just saying...😀

You can indeed. Are you angling for some?

Blue socks or slippers I could run to. Stockings involves far more understanding of others' calf, knee and thigh dimensions than I think is healthy.

For anyone interested in the pattern, it is available for £2 here (or more if you want the printed version). I can't make it to Shetland Wool Week (that's a goal for retirement when it eventually comes) but am enjoying the hat(s). It is a particularly lovely one to knit, especially the way the pattern shrinks towards the crown. The designer did a really good job of it. www.shetlandwoolweek.com/knitting-pattern/