Remember Me ?!

Well here I am again - at last I hear you say - I just know you have been dying to hear from me ! I've been so busy it's not true. We have managed to just about get the house finished - we had agents round yesterday to view and value it and we are putting it on the market as from tomorrow - they are coming round to take pictures in the morning, so I need to get it all looking ship shape, but apart from that and a few finishing pieces that the father in law is currently doing - we are good to go. James leaves for Oman tomorrow evening - so I'm preparing myself for the long lonely nights of knitting ! Hooray - well I'll miss him of course but on the plus side I get to have full control of the remote control and knit as much as I like !

On the knitting front, I have nearly finished the back of Manhattan, and she is looking good. I had a bit of a fit and decided that the moss stitch just wasn't good enough and undid it all and started again - I'm much happier this time around. Now all I need to do is get on with it, but I keep getting distracted. At the weekend I decided to knit myself this lovely bias t-shirt in my Hipknits silk. I thought I had the tension about right, I knitted the front, but it was way too short, so I have decided to do it again, on slightly bigger needles and in the larger size - I hope it will work out this time. I have also decided to purchase some of the yarn that it is supposed to be knitted in and try that out - I think this could be a really good top for a hot country, comfortable, cotton and cool - Only trouble is I have been having real problems finding anywhere in the UK that stocks Phildar yarns. I have found this shop in Holland that does it, and it doesn't seem too madly expensive, but I was wondering if anyone knew of a shop in the UK that might sell Phildar yarns. I have found a shop called Strands that sell some Phildar bits, and I am planning on purchasing three of the pattern books from them, 'cause they just look too good to resist, but I can't seem to get hold of the yarn, I need for the t-shirt in the UK, it's called Phil Ruben. Any ideas or tips anyone ?

I received a lovely knitting book this morning - look


My New Book

I know, I know, I'm probably not going to need scarves in the desert heat, but I can always do them as gifts - can't I ??? I love doing scarves and I'm not about to give them up - so there. I have waited ages for this book - I ordered it on 30 July from Amazon and I just received it today. I am still waiting for the Last Minute Knitted Gifts book - which looks like it won't be here until some time in October - so if anyone has any ideas where I can get that book from sooner that would be great - I need that book !

Does anyone else have the Knitware software ? I got it for my birthday and decided to use it to design a cardi for a new baby that is arriving soon - I used the standard sizings and programmed in for a 4.5kg baby - the pattern seems to have come out way too big - I am doing a large moss stitch band across the bottom, and it being done in Cotton Glace and it has told me to cast on 64 stitches - this seems like way too many to me - am I wrong or is it and should I just override the standard sizes and use the custom sizes - maybe that's what I should do.

Anyway - I shouldn't be away for so long now, I'm going to be on my own, so my computer is going to be very important to me !