Not much achieved yesterday, like swimming through treacle. I did clean the refrigerator, at least.

Here’s the current state of the veil. The initials can be read with the eyes of faith. Here (I hope) is a close up of "RM".

The edging proved tough. For one thing, I couldn’t remember how to do it, given a veil in one hand, a ball of yarn, two sock needles of the right size (I thought they’d be useful) – what do I do next? I got it in the end. Abandon the sock needles. Slip the circular I’ve been using all along, through some of the cast-on stitches. Cast on for the edging next to the picked-up stitches. Knit the right-side rows of the edging away from the veil, on to the other end of the circular needle. Knit the wrong-side rows back towards the veil, and knit the last stitch together with a stitch from the veil.

OK.

I struggled mightily with the edging I said I was going to use, the Wave Lace Edging on p. 118 of “Heirloom Knitting”. Eventually I gave up, and switched to the Doris Edging on p. 74. It’s easy and I’m doing fine, but so far I don’t like the effect. It looks too big and lacey. The photographs of the prototype veil, which is currently missing, seem much neater. (That's it, to the left.) But that edging pattern – from Hazel Carter’s “Shetland Lace Knitting from Charts” in fact has even more stitches in it.

I think the thing is to soldier on for a while, at least for today.

I’m also worried about – I don’t know what to call it. Gauge, in a sense.

As I knit up and down the vertical edges, I’ll be using the loops I made, one to every two rows of the veil. So two rows of the edging will fit with two rows of veil. But what about the horizontal bits? There (except for this cast-on edge) I have real stitches waiting. If I attach the edging to every one of them, won’t that make it bunchy? I know that knit stitches are not square, but can never remember without a lot of anxious cogitation whether they are taller than they are wide, or vice versa. I think the answer is relevant here, but in which direction does it tend?

I think I need, not early bed, but some fresh air. But I’m reluctant to decamp to Strathardle until I’ve got this file-translation job finished, and the CD on its way to the publisher in London.