The Bluestocking Women's Pub: Where the Bluebird Sings to the Lemonade Springs

[AngleofRepose]

Croeso/Welcome to the Bluestocking Women's Pub, with our lovely gerbil staff, the icy Mojito foot-bath for those of you fed up with the heat, a Quilting/Craft Nook, lots of yummy food and drink with zero calories, gluten, or allergens, the Gerbil World Cup, and a brand new magic pool that becomes a babbling brook whenever you want it to!

Come on in! All women welcome! (Men welcome at The Staunch Ally pub down the road aways)

(security provided by the capybaras, lovely folk, but try not to get in their way)

(oh, and don't mention triangles, please. Gubbins gets very overexcited)

(did we mention the Gerbil World Cup?)

I’m starting to think about my next blanket. It’s going to be for the bedroom window seat & have rows of cats in different colours, preferably using up my stash.

Only I’m not sure I can summon the energy to get off the sofa & look in my yarn cupboard just now.

From the article…

Henley, a lecturer from the University of Auckland, has studied netball deeply, both locally and globally.
"It is unique - the only sport that I have been able to find that is completely controlled, operated, designed by, played by women over its history," Henley said.
"It is a team sport that men do not play or, if they play, there's netball and there's men's netball. It's distinct from rugby and women's rugby and football and women's football. Women are the benchmark of how the game is played.

I love this!

I’m participating in a Cable Knit ALong. https://berroco.com/patterns/cable-craze-blanket-knit-along/

These are the squares I have completed in pale blue and a mid blue, and I’m about nine rows into the diamond pattern. I need to buy four balls of navy to do the darker ones.

How about a snake in the corridor?
One of the perils of Forrin Climes.

Your darling MiL sounds so much like mine, who died in 2021 at the age of 97, primarily from old age, according to her death certificate. By then I'd been married to her eldest son for 53 years and she still used to marvel that he'd been lucky enough to find someone like to marry him. 😊💕

I had a bee in my bed once as a child. I stretched out my bare legs under the duvet & it stung me.

I was thoroughly unimpressed but now I also feel a bit sorry for the bee.

Oh no 😱 even worse than a spider!

Aha thank you, this is exactly what I need! - we've been enjoying watching bits of the commonwealth games netball today and just got tickets to go and see it in person tomorrow! But I need to brush up - DH was asking me questions about the rules and I was having to dig very deep to remember anything at all, since I think I last played age 11!

I’ve been trying to watch the Commonwealth games gymnastics, but neither HBO nor TNT can be bothered to provide any commentary. Utter waste of money. <<grumbles>>

I'm so impressed that you can actually make something like that! You and @EmpressaurusKitty with her blankets. I will get back to my quilting over the winter, I know, but on the off months, I feel completely non-creative. So I enjoy seeing all your projects!

I have a friend & a cousin who both do quilting & I love seeing their work. Any pictures, @AngleofRepose?

How about a snake in the corridor?

Yup. That would do it. I'm not afraid of snakes, I'm actually quite indifferent, but there are plenty of venomous snakes in the US, so I learned to be wary.

Scorpion or venomous spider in my shoe is a displeasure I thankfully have never had to suffer, but, again, we were always careful.

I think I have mentioned my one and only heebie-jeebies creature before ( aside from the usual rabid rodents, squirrels, dogs, and occasional venomous spider): House Centipede (US). @Chickadeeinme will probably know what I mean. They freak the life out of me and no, I'm not going to google them for you!

I don't have any digital pictures at the moment, but because all my quilts are packed away, and I haven't made a full one in a very long time, but the two I'm working on might be worth pictures once I get into them! They are more like informal patchwork, because I don't have the patience for fancy piecing. But, I'm going to try some fine hand quilting this winter and probably some sashiko.

That’s a fine set of cabled squares, @MyrtleLion . I do love a cable and am very tempted to start that blanket myself. I even know a good cause I could give it to when it’s finished, if I use the right yarn.

However, I am slightly (ahem) behind with my Debbie Abrahams 2026 Mystery Blanket so I ought not start another.

That’s disappointing. An important part of the fun is having the details explained to you so you understand what’s going on, especially when it’s something clever or unusual.

the images are from the website. My squares are in different shades of blue and full of mistakes 😆🤣

What’s sashiko?

(I know I could google it but I’d rather ask!)

My squares are in different shades of blue and full of mistakes personalised creatively.

Japanese hand quilting, done in a completely different way to Western style hand quilting. Uses a stabbing and bunching method with quite a long, strong needle (so the quilter gathers several stitches onto the needle while bunching up the fabric). No frame is used. The stitches are usually not exceptionally tiny, but very uniform in length, and normally white Sashiko thread on to dark indigo cotton fabric. The stitches are meant to bind several layers of fabric together to create warmer clothing, but it's now used for bags, cushions, etc., as well. Traditionally, you wouldn't even use batting, but a thin layer of it works quite well. The fabric used should be a fairly open weave because the needles are so thick. Different weights of the Sashiko thread can be used to create different effects. The aim is to create geometric shapes, using straight runs of stitches. But this does mean that, technically, you should be counting the stitches in a row, so you always reach the same point at the end, with the same amount of stitches.

Traditional, Western quilting uses tiny, tiny stitches and very tiny needles called "betweens" and the quilter normally uses a rocking method with the hand that is holding the needle. The other hand is underneath, just to help guide the needle. You really need a frame for that.

Sashiko is a Japanese embroidery mending technique, which looks beautiful and easy in the many examples I’ve seen on Instagram, but which I know would just look rough if I tried it.

One of my long-term won’t-happen plans is to decorate a denim jacket in various Sashiko patterns. I have the jacket.

(written as @AngleofRepose was posting)

Yes, exactly! Although, I think using denim might be hard going, unless it was very lightweight? I'm hoping to get a dyeing kit next month, if the dry weather holds , and try some indigo dyeing out in the garden, to make my own indigo fabric for the Sashiko quilt. I have some Osnaburg which would do nicely, I think. It's a messy, messy job, though!

I suspect it will be a long time before my stitches are as uniform as the ones in that picture! It's going to take a lot of practice and time.

I'd love to see what you do with the jacket- perhaps we can compare notes at some point after the winter!

Thank you both!

Aww, thank you! I’ll take pictures tomorrow for you all xx

@AngleofReposei am quite disturbed to hear that there is such a thing as a venomous house centipede and will attempt to forget that fact as soon as possible! I don’t even like ants in my house.

I am very herpetophobic (I think that’s the word for fear of snakes isn’t it?) - possibly because I was born in India and lived there until I was almost 5, so I guess I probably had the fear of them instilled in me then. I can deal with photographs, and I can deal with non-venomous ones, but even moving film of the venomous kind makes me come over all shuddery.