All seems well with the virtual world this morning.

All day yesterday I couldn’t get my email, i.e., couldn’t connect to Pop3.demon.co.uk, although Demon restored connectivity to the Internet quite soon, and their webpage didn’t report any difficulties. Finally, towards evening, I took matters into my own hands. I turned my broadband modem off and then turned it on again.

It was all rather upsetting. My first thought was that the Direct Debit hadn’t been paid and I had been cast without warning into darkness and silence. Franklin said something the other day, in a comment here, about the connections between us all, who may never meet each other. It has changed my life. I am always astonished when I meet internet-users who don’t have cyber-friends of their own. In my case, I didn’t really know any other knitting-obsessives until the age of about 60 when I met them in space. An experience not unlike falling down the rabbithole – into Wonderland.

Slipping the First Stitch when Knitting Lace

This is interesting.

I was very touched to find a comment from Ted himself. Any, hey – I’m not a very good knitter, either!

Because (at least in part) of the squareness of garter stitch [two rows equal one ridge equals one stitch] , one very often finds oneself attaching two rows of lace edging to two rows of body in one operation. I’m finding it hard to think about this: geometry is not me. But one knits a row of edging inwards, joins the last stitch to a stitch of the body, and then knits the next row of edging outwards without joining. Whereas when you are doing, say, a saddle shoulder in st st, you can’t attach at that rate, or the saddle will puff up.

And so it helps a lot to have a nice chained edge on the body which already represents one nice big fat pick-up-able stitch for every two rows.

I just did the arithmetic for Hazel Carter’s Sampler Shawl in “A Gathering of Lace” and find, I think, that even she (who is anti-slipping) is using this ratio. It was good to hear from Franklin that Galina herself recommends slipping.

On the other hand, Ted’s remark about getting a better edge on scallops by not slipping the first stitch – where the slipped-stitch line is going to remain the outer edge, and not be picked up – is very interesting indeed. I’ll try it if I ever reach the outer edge of the Princess. There aren’t any other scallops that I can think of in my immediate future. Monika’s remark about leaving those slipped stitches loose, is interesting too. I think that’s the way I do it, without giving the matter any thought until now.

Non-knit

Thank you for the suggestion about apple juice, Lorna, although it’s harder to fool someone who is staying in your house and wandering into the kitchen where the bottles are.

At some point in Lent, our daughter Rachel was at a champagne party. She took a glass, and simply didn’t drink it. When they came round offering refills, she showed her brimming glass and said, “I’m fine, thanks.” That’s heroism.