It's True What They Say

I belong to three knitting guilds, subscribe to all manner of newsletters and follow blogs.  Sooner or later each of these outlets offers advice on exercises for knitters.  Ways to prevent pain.  Tips on how to knit longer and faster without getting twinges.  Hints for avoiding eye strain.  And I dutifully skim the words or listen with half and ear. 

Well, this weekend I practiced what they preach.   My shoulders were relaxed and down.  Not all hunched up getting ever closer to my ears.  Elbows were at a comfortable angle that kept the stitches right in the sweet spot of my bifocals.

And every twenty - thirty minutes I set the yarn aside and moved.  As in got up and walked.  Eyes were focused on objects far away - like watching the clouds for any sign of actual rain.  I even did that slow roll of the head from front to side to back to side and to front again.  I did it in both directions.

Then the fingers got a work out.  One by one, the finger tips touched the palm and slowly worked up to a straight position which moves all of the joints .  Wrists were flapped around and loosened.  And then back to work I went.  Longer breaks revolved around food and football.  But always I went back to the sticks and string.

It's true what they say.  Exercise, correctly applied, allows for more pain free knitting.  Two thousand four hundred sixty stitches one day.  Followed by three thousand six hundred ninety stitches the next day.  That makes a total of 6150 pain free stitches.  Cool.