The plan: to follow some, if not quite all, of the knitting patterns in Mrs Beeton's Book of Needlework.

And why not? as a certain film critic used to say.

And why?

• There's some cool, if not always (ever?) strictly useful, things in there.
• There's the challenge of following the not-always-complete written-out patterns.
• There are too few opportunities for typing the word "antimacasser".

First off, a knitted veil, of the sort one can imagine pinned on top of a suitably severe hair-do.