How to knit with less hand pain
The quiet, peaceful sound of your needles gliding against one another.
The comforting repetition of twirling the yarn around and around again.
The hand cramps, thumb achiness, and fatigue you experience.
If your hands absolutely kill you as you knit, *yet you can’t help but knit anyway*, you are certainly not alone.
I would say, close to half of the people who have signed up for Healthy Hands Academy, my signature program for individuals with arthritis, love to knit, crochet, embroider, etc…
…but it can absolutely KILL your hands!
Yet you do it anyway, because you are a crafter and absolutely love what you do.
Ok hear me out:
I will never, NEVER tell you to give up something you love to do because of your health or your hands.
I am always of the mindset, there’s another way. There’s a way that works better.
There are things we can find that can totally turn around your knitting experience.
And that goes for truly any activity or hobby you may have.
So for knitting, I like to approach it three-fold:
Let’s first look at ways you can support your hands during the task.
Here are a few ideas:
Kinesiotape. I absolutely love this stuff because it’s fully customizable - you can truly target the area you’re hurting. It supports your hand joints but still allows you to actually move your hands - such a requirement for knitting! Try out this method if you have thumb pain.
Silicone thumb supports. These are as flexible as kinesiotape, but applying them is much easier. Less customizable than tape, they target your thumbs.
Stress relief gloves. While they don’t target your thumbs, if you tend to get crampy in the middle of your hand these may be your best bet! They’re like gloves but without any of the finger coverings, leaving your fingers absolutely free to do the work they need to do.
Ring splints. If you have hypermobile finger joints, meaning they bend backwards beyond what they ‘should,’ wearing ring splints to block this unwanted motion and support your finger joints can be key. Some popular types of ring splints include swan neck, MCP splints, thumb MCP or CMC splints, and buddy splints.
Push metagrip. This is the ‘gold standard’ for thumb CMC support for dang near any task you need, knitting included.
In addition to adding something like the above supports to your hand, you can also try adding a tool to your knitting project!
Wear a yarn stranding guide on your finger so you don’t have to tightly grip the yarn
Portuguese knitting pin or necklace to hold the tension for you
Finally, you could also consider modifying how you're knitting!
larger needles / yarn
knit continental style
finger knitting
loom knitting
Whew! How’s that for ideas on ideas on ideas??
I absolutely love serving you 🙂
Speaking of, have you heard about my free masterclass coming up March 22nd? We are going to be diving deep into thumb supports, some of the ones I listed above, and it’s going to be so. Much. Fun.
I would love to see you there!
