Ouch-less Knitting

I’ve been knitting a lot lately. I’ve been spending my days hunched over my work table drafting patterns and my evenings knitting from charts. Believe me, I’m feeling it in my shoulders, forearms and wrists. And I’m not the only one…I’m hearing and reading the same complaint from many of my knitting compadres.

So I did a little research and came up with a variety of stretches to work out the kinks.  The first come to us from Knitting Daily. These are easy, quick and can be performed right at your desk or kitchen table.

Here are some interesting ones from Knitting Freedom. I think we all know that our over-used knitting muscles cause us pain but we seldom think about what might be the cause. These simple stretches help to loosen the fasciae underlying our stiff forearms and wrists.

I’ve always tended to store stress and tension in my shoulders and lately my shoulder muscles have been cramping and seizing. What a weird feeling. These zen stretches from Knitting Gugu are so obvious that I really wondered if they’d make a difference. Surprise! They really do! Loosen up and knit happy, my friends!

• Sit in a straight chair and slowly turn your head from side to side, trying to look back over your shoulder on each side. You must do this very slowly so that there is an opportunity for proper stretching to occur. Repeat at least 10 times.
• Tip your head to one side trying to touch your ear to your shoulder. You can’t really do this. It’s just a description of the movement. Hold your head in the position described for a count of 10 and then try to touch the ear on the other side to your other shoulder. Hold. Repeat at least 10 times.