the spirit is eager to knit, but the joints are weak

[cimorene]

Current Mood: Knitting till I have to tape my hithchiker’s thumb to take the pressure off the joint and put a thimble on my forefinger to protect the tip from bruising when I push the left needle back. I really want to finish this blanket! I'm so close (already over 150 cm long)!



But I'd like to figure out a more permanent solution for this.

I don't have any rings long enough to hold my thumb joint straight, though (actually the last joint in my right forefinger could use a brace too: it's not fully double-jointed, just... what do they call that, hyperextension?).

And I bought one of those silicone thimbles that's for... some kind of office work... and it's better than the metal ones, but it's still not comfortable. Too small. Gets sweaty. I bet a wooden thimble would be ideal, but do I really care enough to whittle my own thimble... ?

This is quite exciting because waxjism is in the last stage of the blanket she's been working on, too, and after that one we'll be 2 for 4 in our "adequate knitted blankets to be able to completely get rid of all the polar fleece ones (or rather, recycle them as floor pouf stuffing)" campaign! (And when it's victoriously complete I get to make floor poufs!)

Comments

[james]

Would investment in a knitting machine work for you?

[cimorene]

Actually we have one that works, according to my MIL, we just don't have space to set it up. But it wouldn't replace hand knitting!

[hebethen]

Whittling your own thimble sounds hella badass :O

[cimorene]

Hahaha, on a very tiny scale! I have been thinking more about it lately because the bunnies nibble the bark off of so many small sticks and we've always got bits of wood lying around waiting to be thrown back to nature (they mostly just eat the bark off and then lose interest).

thimble

[dialecticdreamer]

Try finding a quilter's leather thimble. The good ones are a leather piece that runs at least halfway down the finger on the palm side, with the back covering the first joint with leather and the second joint with an elastic section. No sweating. Comfy for HOURS, and easy to use. Inexpensive (around $7 where I am), too!

For the thumb joint, have you tried the crafting gloves for arthritis? It might help.

Re: thimble

[cimorene]

Oh, thanks for that tip! Surprisingly easy to track down!

[niqaeli]

Ring splints! The Oval-8 themoplastics are a fairly cheap but effective solution to hyperextension of the the PIP and DIP joints of the fingers, and they're what I'm currently using on my thumbs. They are available via Amazon, if that's useful to you. I measured myself to approximate what size I figured I'd need for my thumbs and then ordered one of the sizing sets of 3. If you need to splint multiple joints (the DIP ring finger joint will probably take a VERY different size than the PIP thumb joint), it might be about the same cost just to order the full sizing set, I'm not sure.

But yeah, they've been great. They make knitting much better for me, as well as typing and several other activities.

[cimorene]

Thanks so much for this tip, honestly!!!!!!!!!!

(Extra !s for extra excitement!)

I only knew about the silver ones before. I'm in the process of looking for domestic sources, or ideally, somewhere sort of local where I could maybe try them on... because it seems 'swan neck' deformity is something they're often prescribed for, but it describes the exact opposite of what my 3 center fingers do, so this would probably mean wearing the brace upside-down from the way they're pictured... plus I'm always leery of ring sizes because my fingers have an unusually fat knuckle to skinny finger ratio... but at worst I can still order them from inside Finland, and there seems to be a prominent Swedish manufacturer of similar ones to those Oval 8s called Ringen Fingerfärdig that nobody is selling direct to customers/only through medical/physiotherapy sources that looks promising...

[cesy]

I was coming here to say the same thing. And yes, you can wear them back to front or sideways, some of the official docs have that listed for different conditions.

[cimorene]

Thanks, good to know!

[vass]

That blanket looks amazing. I love the zigzags. Wax's blanket is gorgeous too. And I love your campaign.

Good luck with the joints.

[cimorene]

Thanks, I'm very proud of my blanket efforts. It's been a lot of fun to knit, too!