Edinburgh is back to winter-normal, slushy, still, but largely thawed. I got out to a supermarket. There were lots of gaps on the shelves, but enough food to keep us all going.

I've had nothing from the Mindful Chef. I had completely given up when I had an email in the late afternoon from the usual delivery people, Yodel, saying that my package was out for delivery.  But it’s not here, an hour and a half after the time they specified, and I can’t track the package, as on other Mondays. When I first saw the email, it said that there were 15 deliveries ahead of mine – that’s not much more than half an hour. But 15 it has remained.

I am making myself an interesting-sounding roast tomato soup, from this morning’s Times.

I got on well with the Soutache. Odd things continue to happen from time to time, but I’m closing in on the darkest of the gradient colours, smaller needles, and the final 5” of rib.

One of you told me recently about a group – a Ravelry group? – devoted to knitting things one has knit before. I’ve let it get away from me, and would be very grateful to be reminded. Those are the patterns worthy of notice.

What has brought the thought to mind, is my half-brioche sweater from last year. It has kept me wonderfully warm these last few days. Would I like another one? And – would it be possible to introduce some picturesque swirls into half-brioche? I don’t see why not. Every row, in both real- and half-brioche, has to be knit twice. But all the fancy patterning is done with the first pass. Then you have three plain-vanilla rows. Then you start again. It might be worth a tentative swatch.

I think full brioche is too much, for a sweater.

I looked at the end of Nancy Marchant’s Craftsy class today. She recommends full-scale, get-it-wet-and-pin-it-out blocking for large projects in which she wants the two colours to have equal importance, but only careful steaming for projects in which bounce is important. Like a scarf. So that’s nice.

I’ve now finished making the soup, and it’s good. Yodel says that their van broke down.