I wound the yarn, I started the square, the final pocket square, the one for the bridegroom. It's looking good, with a double row of eyelets around the edge. I did a practice square while I was in the hospital, probably a good thing. It's all a matter of keeping one's wits about one. It's knit corner-to-corner: so for the first half, two YO's mean I need one decrease if I am not to increase too rapidly. And on the return journey, two YO's will require three decreases. I should finish today or tomorrow.

I went to the new Schoolhouse website yesterday and tried to order the Fair Isle Vest DVD and a couple of books, but the site defeated me. At the end, when it came to “Shipping Method”, the only option presented to me was “Ground”. I chose it, perforce, although I know the Schoolhouse prefers air for international orders, as do I. But it was no use, as the next message was that the shipping method I had chosen wasn't available. I've written to them and no doubt we will get it straightened out eventually.

The reason I didn't order the pattern is that, at the last minute, I found the issue of Knitter's which contains it. I had put it away, along with the four issues from 2000 in which Meg re-visits the EPS, on top of the knitting books on a shelf where there was a convenient slot. All I've got to do now, is not forget again.

I am reading a book called “Counting Sheep” by Philip Walling – highly recommended, although there's no knitting in it and virtually nothing about Shetland. It's a history of sheep in Britain, with lots of interesting information about individual breeds and about life as a sheep farmer. You don't want to know about fly-strike. The author used to be a sheep farmer and later became a barrister.

Medical

I liked your anecdote about the broccoli, Jean (comment yesterday). I don't entirely understand the dietary restrictions that go with Warfarin. No alcohol (or, so little one might as well not bother), no cranberry juice (they're very emphatic about that), no grapefruit. So far, so good. Clear, simple.

But then there's a list of all the foods that make up my diet: “Green leafy vegetables, chick peas, mature cheese, liver, egg yolks, cereals containing wheat, bran and oats, blue cheese, avocado and olive oil”. You don't have to give them up, exactly, but “eating them in large amounts may lower your INR result”.

When I was summoned back late Wednesday afternoon for an injection because my INR result was low, I confessed to the dr that I had eaten an avocado the day before. He seemed relaxed about it. The thing to avoid is sudden, radical changes of diet, like going paleo, he said. I might have another avocado today.

The other thing that worries my about that list, is that I can't detect a common thread. They are all foods containing Vitamin K which encourages blood clotting which, at the moment, is what we don't want. But I can't see what sort of food contains Vitamin K. If chick peas, what about other pulses, for instance?

I didn't have an INR test yesterday, just an injection. Today, both. Except for olive oil and some coriander in the salsa verde, I don't think I ate anything from the list yesterday. I am enjoying myself eating a nearly vegetarian diet of things my husband wouldn't like, and going to bed early. Enjoying it, perhaps, a bit too much.