Works for me. And it means you're not tied to the volume the soup maker would contain, and also you can make two soups at the same time, handy if you've got limited time and you want to freeze some.
As for knives, I like Global. Bit expensive, but really good quality and feel good to use. 20cm cooks knife is a good size, great for cutting, chopping, pasting garlic, boning. About £70 from here.
John Lewis do a similar style, much cheaper at £20, depends how much use you'll make of it and how much you want to splash out. Personally, I think one really good versatile kitchen knife is worth investing in. Probably last longer than anything else in the kitchen, and see more use.
Cheers for the advice