Happy Valentine's Day all round!

My remarkable facility with garter stitch continues. I turned the square around on 62 stitches, and so far the declining edges look as neat and satisfactory as the ascending ones. It should be ready for dispatch to London by Monday. This is the Rowan Cotton Glace version of the Pocket Square, mentioned yesterday.

The new IK shows several buttonless cardigans, hanging free with 4”-6” of wearer visible between the edges. They look very neat and comfortable – but does it work? Or does such a garment slip off the wearer's stooped and care-worn shoulders?

And that's about it, for knitting. In the absence of Zite – gone with the iPad – I've been catching up on long-unread blogs. Both the Harlot and Annie Modesitt seem to be in good nick. Best of all, the Socklady, miles from anywhere, moose in the yard and wolves howling at night, no salad for weeks when she is snowed or iced in as at present, living alone and knitting those amazing socks. Sometimes the links in my sidebar don't seem to work so I've put one in the text.

Someone needs to explain to me what “negative interest” is.

I am making a Vietnamese pho chicken soup from a recipe in one of my magazines. Yesterday I poached a whole small organic chicken for ten minutes and then left the pot in the spare room for the rest of the day to cool. Today I am bringing it back to the boil – lovely crystal-clear broth, but the chicken is far from tender. Today it is to simmer for half an hour. Then it must cool again. It is only on the third session that one cuts up the chicken and adds flavouring and finally ingredients (noodles, bean sprouts). Good fun.