The Palm is back in operation – for the moment. Again, thanks for advice and sympathy.

As I said on Monday, I tried deleting everything from Documents to Go and starting again, letting it create “handheld versions” of each file as we went along. That seemed to be helping, but it wasn’t enough.

So I took a deep breath and deleted everything from the Palm. But instead of squirting files into the empty space, Documents to Go found ghostly copies of the deleted files there, and declared itself surprised and pained before aborting the HotSync.

So I thought of doing a hard reset of the Palm and starting again from scratch. Couldn’t figure out how to do it. But I did figure out how to delete “Documents” from it, and off it went, taking its ghostly files with it. Then I reinstalled it, and now we’re in business. When I have re-introduced another 80 to 100 files to Documents to Go -- it's slow work -- and done another HotSync, we’ll be back to where we should have been on Sunday afternoon.

Another little crisis yesterday evening when I caught my foot in some of the Palm wiring under the desk – it plugs in to the electric socket as well as into the computer -- and pulled it to the floor during a HotSync – and then couldn’t re-establish the connection.

I knew that the computer knew the Palm was there, because it gave that little two-note sound it gives whenever I pushed or cancelled the HotSync button. But Documents to Go stood there with its arms folded across its chest and refused to acknowledge it. I solved that one by re-booting the computer.

So I feel pretty pleased with myself, although this doesn’t explain what went wrong in the first place.

Cathairinmyknitting, it sounds as if the “Treo” you mention may be the new version of the Palm I discovered on the internet. It sounds great.

Lisa, I have a kludgy Palm of my own, the gift of a dear knitting friend who was upgrading to something more Third Millennium. I simply love it. Like you, I never try to HotSync it, for fear, in my case, of confusing the computer which needs to keep its mind on my husband’s one. It is especially useful for information which I need to write down and remember and know where I put the note – the name of the new woman at Cr*ft of Dounie who grows vegetable plants for sale, seed ideas for next year, books I read reviews of and want to remember, the opening hours, month by month, of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Edinburgh; all manner of things.

Well, this is supposed to be about knitting. I’m down to the last four (rather like the tennis) Princess edging repeats. I think I am dragging my feet a bit, for fear of finishing. We hope to go to Strathardle next Tuesday for a last wallow in solitude, silence and squalor before the summer invasion. I think I will aim to have the Princess finished by then, the lace grafting done and that moth hole mended. Then I can think about blocking: can space be found here? Or will it have to be done there?

Meanwhile I have finished one front of the cardigan and made a good start on the top part of the second. I like it a lot – but will the judges think it too big? I am aiming for an 11 ½-year-old granddaughter, and I think it’ll fit well. But it looks more small-adult than child when smoothed out on the floor.

I have plugged the Palm into the USB port usually reserved for the camera – so no illustrations until the current phase of that eternal job is finished.