Monday, July 2, 2012

Today's Episode: In Which Lindsay Saves Herself From A Mangled Fist

I've been knitting like a madwoman!  I currently have two sweaters on the go and I am loving working on both because they're so different.

There's my vanilla wedding shrug in a cashmere/merino/silk blend and DK weight:

Geez can someone turn the lights on?

And then there's my dark purple KAL sweater in 100% peruvian wool and bulky weight:

That's better.

Because they're so different I can switch to the other when I get tired of the first and vise versa - this results in pretty much non-stop knitting.  The only problem is - I'm getting hand cramps, finger cramps, and twinges all in my arms.

I know all about over-use injuries.  I've had them before.  But in the past the injury was from something I didn't want to do like working, so this is a whole new feeling because basically I'm a knitting addict and I will knit through the pain just on principle.

So I'm going to try and change my "grasp" (read: mangled claw of death) because I know the one I'm using is an ergonomic nightmare - this is what it looks like:

"I am not an animal!"

I use the crease between my first and second knuckle to hold the yarn and maintain tension.  My middle finger pretty much does all of the knitting and now does the majority of the complaining as well.

My new technique looks more like this:

What's that tingling sensation?  Oh it's my proprioceptors turning back on.

As you can see there are a lot less kinks going on in my hand in general and I'm going to try to minimize my throw as well - keep it as small as possible.

So far this has helped quite a bit in terms of pain, but I'm concerned that the new technique will change my gauge.  A frightening prospect when you're 2/3 of the way through a beautiful sweater.  Wish me luck!

Anyways, I'm really curious how others hold their yarn and maintain tension.  Let me know in the comments if you have a particular technique that works well for marathon knitting sessions.  Or like stretches or yogi chants or anything else keeping you comfortable while you knit for hours on end.

7 comments:

  1. Oh I feel with you, I suffered from these kind of pains about a month ago....also from over-knitting, and I just couldn't force myself to put the darned needles down. I remember getting into bed feeling as if I would never move a finger again and that I was developing a severe case of tennis elbow! But each morning I would get up and force myself to knit!!! This is when you know you are an addict!
    I did find that once I made a compromise with myself (no more than 10 rows or something a day) I could live with it and got better slowly.
    So, I feel for you and hope you are feeling better soon.
    x

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    1. Shoot! I totally have the tennis elbow thing! I think there is definitely too much unnecessary movement going on. Gotta nip this in the bud because I don't know if I have the self control for only 10 rows a day - I can't limit myself to only 10 pieces of chocolate a day, or 10 bites of cake a day. Haha

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  2. I have learned how to keep my hands and arms completely still and just let my fingers do the work. I've had no wrist pain since I started doing that about a year ago.
    I think I have a picture of how I hold on my blog somewhere I'll see if I can round it up.

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  3. Thanks, ladies! I am currently compromising and knitting my shrug with my old grip because I'm so far into it and don't want to compromise gauge, but I am stopping as soon as I get any twinges and not starting anything again until they completely go away. I'm also trying to do the new, more relaxed grip on my KAL project and that seems to be helping a lot. I will also try the "holding my hands and arms completely still" thing as I'm sure that will improve things as well. The nice thing is, I can still knit pretty much constantly because the KAL project gives me enough of a break from the "death grip" that my addiction is satisfied without the whole being in tons of pain thing.

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  4. Oh man that sucks! I have 5 kiddos so I never get enough time to sit and knit to the point of pain...what a luxury that would be :) I would probably do some finger exercises every couple hours to work other muscles a large part of pain isn't from over work of certain muscles but underwork of other muscles (learn that from my hubby's back injury). Also you could soak your hands in the evening and morning to help relax muscles.

    I hold my yarn like you did in the second pic only I wrap the yarn around my index finger once. Works for me, thought now I want to take a picture of myself knitting :)

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    1. The one thing that bugs me about the new grip is that the yarn always slips off my index finger. I am so gonna try wrapping it around once and see if that helps. Yeah and I definitely don't have the time to knit as much as I do. The problem is that my thesis is content to sit quietly unworked on and is therefore much easier to ignore than say a child or 5. Haha. Speaking of which, I should totally work on my thesis.

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