Getting a grip

I had a day not playing. I found myself the other evening with a sore elbow and couldn't decide whether it was brought on by excess piping or excess knitting (always assuming that it's possible to have too much of either! ) Either way I decided to give both a miss for a couple of days.  Friday evening I felt at a real loose end. Saturday wasn't so bad as I had a new toy to play with. The painfully slow speed of my little net book finally got to be more than I could bear and this this is being typed on my new Galaxy Tab (I thought a certain rival firm in the market probably wasn't in need of my money. )

This evening I felt that I had done penance enough and have spent a jolly hour with the monkey. At least, it should have been a jolly hour,  but somehow I just couldn't hold the pipes in a way that was at all comfortable.

This has been a problem for a while. When we went to see Mr Kinnear last year I noted that the outer half of my bellows droops (which sound like a dodgy euphemism but isn't. ) He suggested I wear the bellows lower down, but then my wrist rests on them and my fingers go numb.  I also feel I am in danger of losing the bellows. I am not sure if the skewif bellows are just the symptom of some time of incorrect handling. It could also be because somewhere between last summer and the one before I lost about half a stone. The bellows strap was cut to fit and maybe it just doesn't fit any more.

This evening I've tried bellows up, bellows down, elbow strap tight, elbows strap lose. I think I've probably tried too many variations to see which works, and I've managed to make my left shoulder ache, which is a first.

I will try some knitting and see how that goes. If all else fails I've got a big pile of books to read.