I’ve launched myself onto row 159 of the Princess border.

I had a grand time with Maureen yesterday. As Mrs Moneypenny says in the FT today, of internet friendships, “Meeting people in the flesh is always a bit scary. What if you (or they) don’t live up to expectations? You develop an impression of people…and sometimes it is best not to spoil a relationship with harsh reality.”

We hit it off, and had a splendid time.

We have a lot of friends in common – people we know on-line. In many cases, one or the other of us (usually Maureen) had met the person in Real Life. Other friendships were wholly virtual. I have often thought about the virtual community provided by the internet, but had never been so struck as I was yesterday with how that community can intersect and enrich the real world.

We met at Drummond Wools, near the b&b where she is staying. I hadn’t been there for a decade or so, and won’t go again soon. It’s mostly sewing machines these days. Then we went on to HK Handknit, an excellent little shop which seems to get better every time I’m there. I had light-heartedly assumed that I was above temptation, but I’m always in the market for gents’ sock wool of interesting hues, and bought these:

(The light shade will be for a female person.)

Then we found a pleasant café and had coffee.

Here’s the cashmere Koigu. It was a slight disappointment – the colours are duller and flatter than they would be on wool. This must be the fault of the material, as we know they were dyed by the master’s hand. It is an interesting discovery. I have photographed them with an oddball of wool Koigu in a roughly comparable colourway and I think even allowing for the distortions of photography and computer monitors, you can see a hint of the difference.

Maureen brought me, as sheer good-natured gifts of friendship, these Knit Picks needles, said to be first-rate for lace, and this beautiful merino Knit Picks lace-weight yarn. I know that I mustn’t transfer the Princess border onto a new needle, but there is Victorian Lace Today and there is this wonderful new yarn and it could perfectly well be cast on to one of the new needles…

If only there were more hours in the day, and more days in one’s mortal span.

And, on that theme, thanks to everybody for the links to Malabrigo lace-weight. Thursday’s difficulty, carlarey, was clearly that hausofyarn inserts a dash in the phrase “Malabrigo – Baby Lace” and Google rightly refused to produce it when I insisted on the exact phrase.

And didn’t somebody suggest Webs? If so, it’s not there in the comments any more. But Webs does stock it. I probably would have ordered some on the spot if they hadn’t already sold out of the two colours I liked best.

And Handpaintedyarn has also got it, cheaper. I am embarrassed for choice, and (see above) underprovided with time.