The Bluestocking: To the moon and back gerbil style.

[Boiledbeetle]

Previous thread of chat and general madness below

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5506124-the-bluestocking-womens-pub-spring-is-sprunging-and-mns-name-generator-can-do-one

Women: from an orderly queue at the bar or take a seat and grab a passing gerbil.

Men: turn left at the end of the road, keep walking until you find the Staunch Ally.

Bar gerbil a full fat coke please and a packet of Scampi Fries please.

Well I turn my back and suddenly I've missed three pages' worth, a lot of it about crocheting. Whereas the end of the previous thread was all about flat-pack assembly.
Gender fluid, that's us
Lovely to have you back with batteries recharged, Fuzzy!

Happy rest-of-your-birthday, Tractor, it sounds like it has gone well so far
🎉🎂

The other thread you are talking about sounds distressing, I've no wish to read it. The only board I read apart from FWR is the shopping one which puts issues like cost of living crises and war and things like that in perspective - there was a discussion today about whether or not cardigans are a fashion misstep. Yes, cardigans in general, not one cardigan in particular. You can imagine the emotions that stirred up!

I mentioned before that there was a discussion where a woman asked for advice about a job interview outfit, and she had very little money to spend on it.
The replies were so lovely! not only lots of suggestions and links to clothes, but so many messages of encouragement and support. Sweet💕
I wish I knew if she got the job in the end.... that's the problem with other boards, I'd get too emotionally involved, which is why I give AIBU a wide berth!

I love the Planet of the Apes suggestion😂

There’s a great tutorial by Bella Coco on YouTube. That might help.

Hello everyone <waves>

Gosh, page 3 already! I can't keep up.

Thanks for the shiny new thread Beetle

Happy Birthday @ShinyBlueTractor and (slightly belatedly) Mr Walrus and I'm glad you're feeling better @FuzzyPuffling

I've been watching Race Across the World. They've been in my favourite bits of Italy - Sicily, Calabria and Puglia. I think I need a holiday.

Meanwhile, I'd like some Sicilian cannoli please gerbils and a Baileys ( it should be Limoncello, but I can't stand the stuff).

Edited for spelling

A large gin and some of those green cakes, please, bargerbil.

Fuzzy, lovely to see you back, and I hope you're 100% better.
And happy birthday to @ShinyBlueTractor

Boily, magic rings are the pits. I don't like them, and I've made half a dozen crocheted blankets and goodness knows how many hats and shawls. Chain 4 is much better. A photo guide might help - videos always seem to go at the wrong speed - too slow or too fast.

B&B had a very exciting afternoon: they put up a Chinese water deer. I've only ever seen one once before. It very considerately ran in a wide arc across one and a half fields so I got a good look at it. It was bloody fast, much faster than a muntjac.

I tried watching it.

<cries even more>

It didn't

Waaaaaaahhhhh.

I will try again tomorrow when I haven't got a cat trying to play with the bright yellow ball every 5 seconds

Tbh I just fold my yarn in a loop and pull through. Might not be the right way but it works lol.

Marie,
there was a discussion today about whether or not cardigans are a fashion misstep. Yes, cardigans in general, not one cardigan in particular. You can imagine the emotions that stirred up!
Cardigans are NEVER a fashion misstep. I've been a massive fan since the menopause. I've just gone through the elbow of a favourite one, which is a very sad loss.

And speaking of emotion, I think we all need to club together to buy Boily some nice hankies, and make sure the gerbils provide her with enough sustenance, both liquid and other, to drown her sorrows.

Thanks for the links @Boiledbeetleand @WearyAuldWumman.

I feel for her. My elder DS is autistic and will turn 48 this year. He’s had relationships but not long ones and always with people who have real problems themselves. I don’t know if he will ever end up in a long-term one.

I think my brain just got to the nope not doing that stage and like a tantrumming toddler has refused to move from its very stubborn position on the subject

A Mumsnetter taught me to crochet, & we did a lot of it over WhatsApp.

@Boiledbeetle, I just remembered that one thing I did when I started was buy a scarf from Poundland & practise doing doubles & trebles along one edge. That and making long chains.

It all gets you used to using the hook before trying to follow patterns.

We have a rare sighting of Boily in human form. Probably due to the frustration of crochet.

But there is sustenance and there are hankies.

And there are gerbils. As always.

ASD runs in our family.

The first formal diagnosis was when my cousin's lad was diagnosed with Asperger's and ADHD in the '90s. He got married to a lovely girl last month.

I wish there was a way of showing her an analogy that meant she understands how she might be exploited. She understands consent and can make meals and clean but she has no clue that even the most competent of women can be manipulated into coercive situations.

I read horrific posts on MN about brilliant and intelligent women who end up doing all the emotional and physical labour of having children while the men in their lives spend all their time and money on themselves. I hate to think what situations this woman could end up in because she has no comprehension of men's motivation. And the kind supportive men of this world are unlikely to want to be in a relationship with her because they would end up just talking care of her.

Yes. When I was teaching, I'd see mothers coming in by themselves at parents' evening and I'd realise that they were vulnerable because of a learning disability and had literally been left holding the baby.

Both wine AND beer.
I'll have what she's having. And some more green cakes.

It's been a busy few days, and I was informed this evening that my bank holiday weekend is going to end with a bloody committee meeting on Monday evening.

A very bright friend of mine, capable of dealing professionally with all sorts of dire situations, ended up in a coercive relationship with a violent man who almost killed her. If it can happen to her, it can happen to anyone.

So the odds of this poor young woman being exploited are very high.

Reading all these posts on how to crochet reminds me of why I just drink gin. Life is so much simpler that way.

Welcome back @ShinyBlueTractor and happy birthday!

Dragging back to the last thread, @MariedeGournay made the assumption that people from rural southern England all conjugate the verb 'to be' as:

I be
You be
He/She be
We be
You be
They be

We don't. While there may be local variations, most of us us use the same conjugations as everyone else. I do love you dearly but your last post was as insensitive as me suggesting that Irish people greet each other by saying "Top of the morning to you".

I have had a shit day so don't take this the wrong

In some rural bits of Northern Ireland, 'be' still gets conjugated properly.

Tardy child: The bus bes late
Sarcastic teacher: Bes it, indeed?
Tardy child: Aye and some days there bes no bus at all

A new thread -as shiny as Boily's shell
🚜 happy birthday to you (I know that's a little tractor, but the sentiment is the same 😀)

Re crochet; I tried bellacoco but didn't like the style.
I have used attic24 in the past.
There's a lady on utube who explains crochet very carefully and patiently which I found very useful when I needed a refresher. I will try to find her
And no magic circle here; I like a slipknot with a 4 chain

The latest thread by that woman has just been deleted.

I see the reality filter kicked in there momentarily!!

I need a bigger plate of nibbley things

Arghh…I go out for an evening and you move and you’re nearly 100 posts in…

As my eldest has ASD and my middle has ADHD. I know how they struggle, without learning difficulties, to connect with people. This lass has no idea what danger she's in. It's horrific.

My first blanket was an Attic24 pattern, it’s still draped over the back of my sofa.

I was diagnosed with OCD in my 30s. It's since been suggested that I actually have ASD and ADHD.

When it comes to men, I miss cues unless it's really obvious. Can't remember whether I've mentioned it in here, but I had a an embarrassing situation at the gym where I thought that I was just having a friendly conversation and the bloke I was speaking to thought I was chatting him up - he checked whether I was wearing a wedding ring and made a comment about me getting home to my husband.

I managed to bite my tongue and didn't tell him that I was a widow.