My iPad keyboard is refusing to take a charge, and so I’m typing this on-screen and finding it disproportionately annoying. So this will be brief.

Why not use my laptop, you ask? Good question, I say. My laptop is currently mainly engaged in playing Stampy Longnose Minecraft videos and to be honest, asserting ownership rights would take more effort than I’m prepared to expend just now. Although if this keyboard persists in not working, the balance will shift.

So, on to knitting. Even though I haven’t yet finished my last thing for other people yet (still no embroidery on Lily’s cardi) I’ve cast on the next gift item. As soon as I saw Princess Franklin in the latest Knitty I knew I wanted to make it for someone (preferably me). I showed It to Steve, more in retaliation for the many conversations about computing that I’ve withstood over the years than in touting it to him, and he said “ooh, yes please, that would be lovely”.

So, when I picked myself off the floor, I waited a month for Christmas to pass, and then rushed down to my LYS to acquire some suitable yarn.

Of course, I haven’t bought the yarn listed in the pattern, so it’s knitting up to a slightly different gauge. After I’ve competed the current repeat of the stripes I’ll measure and decide whether to continue and if so, by how much.

The way the pattern works is that the vertical stripes are knitted into the fabric, and then the horizontal “weave” is added after you’ve joined the circle of the cowl. There are a lot of ends to weave in, but I’m being a good girl and doing them as I go.

I’m also liking how this looks on the right side. It’s coming out pretty neat, although by now I shouldn’t be proud of my ability to knit even garter stitch.

I did start this as an exercise in learning to get the right tension on Portuguese knitting. I kicked off and spent a good 2 evenings practising my new skill. It was all going swimmingly – tension not a problem, even though Portuguese knitting is a little tighter than usual, and it was looking good.

The next day, I had a bizarre bone-ache type pain in my left forearm. I get this bone-ache type pain in my legs as part of PMS (having only recently discovered it was a thing, and not early onset arthritis) so I just sighed and assumed that it was spreading to my arms. After all, knitting in a different way couldn’t _cause_ RSI after on 2 evenings …could it?

I changed back to the old method(s), though, and sure enough, the pain has gone.

I may need to save the unusual knitting method for Special Occasions. I’ll try it again, but interfering with my ability to type makes it very unhelpful…