A few years ago, I was at a knitting conference with a friend who was knitting the “Fly’s Body” lace edging that is used in the border of this capelet. She had discovered the stitch pattern on a small notepad that was tucked inside a Victorian knitting book she purchased at a used bookstore in England. A woman named Miss Money had recorded several of her own lace stitches on the pages of the notepad in her own, original shorthand, a pre-cursor of a knitting chart. I like to call this “Miss Money’s Secret Code.”

A tiny sample of the lace, made in thin thread, was attached to the page. My friend was also knitting the stitch in very fine yarn on tiny needles. When we went to a local yarn shop at lunch time, my friend challenged me to make something to wear to our dinner banquet. I bought some super-bulky yarn and size 19 US needles, and knit this up, using the same Fly’s Body border, in a few hours. I finished just in time to wear it to dinner.