One thing to be said for Lent: putting out the bottles for recycling, as must be done on alternate Thursdays, is a lot easier than it was.

The weigh-in was good this morning, too. I've just been looking back through the electronic filofax – in March, 2009 (was that the year Theo and Jenni got married?) I weighed about 20 pounds more than I do now. I was surprised to see that it was so much. That was the year when I realised that giving up cider for Lent increased my appetite for chocolate, which I don't normally have much of. All I had to do was resist the temptation to replace cider with refined sugar...

And it worked. It is most encouraging, at this time of life when I am perceptibly becoming slower and weaker and clumsier, to discover a respect in which I have actually improved.

Knitting – pocket squares

I've heard from Webs – all is well.

The new square has reached London, and the prospective bridegroom says he slightly prefers Cotton Glace to Juniper Moon, although he didn't express it like that – both for colour and texture. Interestingly, he thinks Cotton Glace is slightly less heavy. That shouldn't be the case, since Juniper Moon is a wool and silk blend and cotton is notoriously heavy. Both have the same number of stitches. We'll see what the new yarn is like.

I've got to get this show on the road. September is closer than I seem to think.

Tokyo shawl

I knit happily on, and am nearly finished with the second colour band. The next one is wee, only four rows instead of 21, with a nice red yarn knit along with the grey alpaca. I can't possibly stop until I've done that one. The red, and two other colours that are used only for accents, come ready-wound, too.

Alternate bands of st st and reversed st st are pulling up mightily, of course, like horizontal ribbing. And the initial four-row garter stitch band is rolling up. This baby is going to need some pretty severe blocking.

Sous Sous

I got a ball of Whiskey Barrel wound, anyway.

Unst Bridal Shawl

And I finished tidying the Messy Corner and feel rather happier about it. It doesn't exactly look good, but it looks a bit less clumsy and amateur. The effect is rather as if I had knit the borders in one piece back and forth and then seamed the final corner – which would have been one way of doing it.

Edinburgh Yarn Festival

I only very recently became aware of it, and won't be going. I mustn't let this happen again. Hazel Tindall is going to be here! Stephen West! That man from the Netherlands who does darning! And no doubt many others. Getting out is difficult for me, and I don't like leaving my husband for any length of time, but that's no excuse as in fact our niece and I are going for a walk on Saturday morning – we'll keep it short – for a breath of fresh air, and to fine tune our plans for the Great Athenian Getaway which now looms fairly close. She is a more experienced traveller than I am, at least in recent years. Maybe we'll go to Cramond.  I'm not sure I've ever been there.

And then home for the Calcutta Cup!