Ditch the Wrist Pain and Get Back to Crafting!
Picture this: It’s a beautiful Saturday morning, you buy a pattern, carefully pick out your yarn and you eagerly cast on (or chain on). Your only plans for the day are watching (fill in your favorite show) and making some major progress on your current wip (work in progress). You’re about one hour in, you’ve made lots of headway, and suddenly you notice a sharp pain emanating from one of your wrists. “No!” you shout, “Not today!”
Ever been there? I have.
Last week I whipped up two Salubrious Sweaters and my wrists were barking! Here is how I fixed it:
Bengay. (“Wait, isn’t that for grandpas who play a lot of racquetball?” No! Keep reading!) This cream is a simple way to dull down sharp muscle pains. If you can’t find Bengay, below are my other favorite pain relieving potions; I used both of them over the course of my 10 year gymnastics career as a youth.
Icy Hot, BioFreeze, and Bengay, the best!
You can find all of these at local grocery stores (i.e Walmart, Fred Meyer, etc.)
2. Stretch!
3. Know your limits: if you know that knitting for three hours straight will make your wrist or fingers ache, take plenty of breaks and stretch during those breaks before the pain arrives.
4. Ice your wrists when they start to hurt. I love reading a book while icing, it makes me feel like I’m still getting something accomplished even though I had to take a break from my precious project.
5. Analyze your technique and consider if there might be a less stress-inducing way to knit. I’m sorry, my wrapper friends, it might be the time to consider learning how to knit continental; it uses significantly fewer movements, which might allow you to pour less energy into each stitch. This is only a suggestion if you are already experiencing pain with your current method, please don’t read this as a “wrap shame” post. I love my wrappers.
6. Use heat! Corn packs are an inexpensive way to soothe aching wrists (and cramps, if ya know what I mean!). Here is a little quick tutorial for a corn pack!
7. Try different tools: one time I was being naughty and casted on a new project despite the fact that all my good needles were currently attached to other projects, so I decided to use some needles that were deep in my storage (a.k.a the second storage step in my stairs). These needles were just some generic circulars I was given when I first started knitting, but a few hours into the project, my wrists and hands were cramping like never before! I was majorly confused until I suddenly realized that the needle tips were shorter than my “go-to” knitting needles, thus creating less area for my wrist to rest on. My hands ended up bunching up on the shorter needles, thus causing a crazy (and unnecessary) cramp fest.
With my good needles (cough cough Chiaogoo 5” interchangeables), I could usually knit with DK yarn for days and not feel any pain! Side note: These are obviously pretty expensive, so shop around and you might find a better deal. THEY ARE WORTH every penny I spent on them. I would rate these higher than the Lykke interchangeable needles, based on the fact that I like metal more than wood and the wires don’t kink like Lykkes do.
Thanks for reading, I hope this helps you get back to the craft you love.
