H is for...

...Hands, specifically hands that are knitting.

We, bloggers and non-bloggers are in Knit Blogland because we love to knit.   Knitting is a textural art.  It isn't always color that attracts, as the unsighted knit. The feel of  the fiber is what entices us, lures us, keeps us happily knitting. If your hands don't like the yarn it is difficult to continue knitting an item. Our hands form stitches from our first simple project and on through time as we become more adept. Often our hands act as if on their own (or so it seems).   

We must care for our hands, the skin, muscles and tendons.  Pain free, happy knitting comes from making sure we don't over use, or injury our hands.  Stretching, exercising, and stopping when the smallest pain arises, are the best ways to insure long term knitting.  Hydrating our hands and fingers, as yarn can dry the skin and nails, is also important to the health of our hands.  Take care of your 'tools of the trade' properly today so you can go into the future with Happy Healthy Hands.

 

Leave a little homage to your own hands in the comments and a couple of you will get a little something to aid in the care for your hands.

Comments

[Marina]

Thank you. Loved seeing how others hold their yarn. It's so interesting to see the various ways.

Maybe one day, I'll be able to force my fingers to do what I want & be a "real" knitter.

[Jane]

Hands are going to be one of my H's, too. Thanks for the big show of hands, Margene! ;)

[Dave Daniels]

That is a great H. It's interesting, I hold my yarn differently than any of those hands. Hmmm. I think you're on to something there, Margene.

[Erin]

I really like this entry -- it's a great way to remember that it's not ALL about yarn lust! I appreciate my hands a wHole lot more since I broke the little finger on my right hand in 2000 (most ridiculous running accident ever)...putting it back together involved my first ever surgery, a tiny titanium pin in the knuckle [Frankenfinger!], and ages at the physiotherapist -- where I learned that some hospitals offer hand injury support groups, because seriously hurting your hands is really hard on you psychologically. My finger wasn't that bad, but boy, did I become aware of all the work that little digit does! e.g., keeps a handful of M&Ms _in_ your hand; reaches that extra key on the piano, and -- for me -- controls the tension when knitting!

Frankenfinger still has a bit of a crook in it and aches when the weather changes, but it's also a reminder to be careful with my hands -- and mindful of what they do for me!

[Chris]

Twice in my life I almost lost the use of my right hand. You betcha I know their value! First was a sudden accident with resulting surgery followed by full recovery. Second was more long term, slow onset (a crick in my neck leading to nerve damage in the wrist - what a strange sensation to simultaneously pick up and drop a pyrex bowl because the hand just wouldn't work). I need to knit something for my chiropractor for his seriously awesome talent in fixing humans.

[Bliss]

Great entry showing all the hands knitting. One thing that I am most grateful for is that the MS rarely affects my hands to the point I can't knit.

[Janet]

Since I was a crocheter before a knitter I hold the yarn in my left hand, tensioning with the index finger very far away. I think that used to be my problem with knitting loosely. Last year I crushed the tip of my right middle finger moving the computer table, computer and all (not smart!) and the first thing I thought of, after downing 4 tablets of Motrin (the bone was broken in many little pieces), was whether my knitting would be affected. Luckily, since I use my left hand so much, it really wasn't.

[Carole]

My hands are my tools
With them I make things that are cool
I protect them from harm
So they can play with the yarn.

How's that? Pretty pathetic, eh?

[Sheri]

This is from my husband, cause my hands are such an important part of me that I really couldn't think of something, besides I'd never be able to live without them. He said "You have very soft, delicate hands." So, there's our homage to my hands.
Sheri in GA

[Lucia]

My hands are small I know,
They are not yours, they are my own...

Knitting hands can change the world, one stitch at a time.

[Ruth]

Like Dave, I was also interested to see that I hold my knitting and my yarn differently from any of the hands pictured. I have a complicated over-under-and-around thing I do to control tension ... not sure how I came by it.

When I take time to think about it (like now) I am in awe of the many ways I use my hands to communicate ... when I talk, when I ride, when I type, when I knit ... but the best thing is the way my hands talk to my young children. When they're upset or anxious my touch can still soothe and ground them. I am grateful I can do that for them.

[Maryann]

Thanks Margene for the great reminder! I have carpal tunnel (minor, thankfully!) so I have to be super-aware of doing too much, or I might be in pain for several days, and not be able to knit at all! I am finally going to quit being so stubborn and quit knitting with cotton, every time I try it I regret it. I am very thankful for my hands and that my injury isn't worse than it is! Thanks for the link to the stretches too!

[Sigga Sif]

I use to feel that my hands were too big and knuckly - they look a bit like I've been working the land in rain and wind for ages. I don't care anymore and I think they're lovely and have a character. And big hands means I can carry 5 (smallish) glasses of beer from the bar to the table and make friends happy :-). Very useful indeed!

[Lolly]

Beautiful post, Margene (if I had a penny for everytime I say that...) and I loved seeing all of the hand pictures! Not only are hands and fingers so important for knitting and other crafts, but they are also vital for leaving comments on friends' blogs! ;)

Best wishes,
Lolly

[Kathleen]

Love those exercises Margene. You know they saved my hands after the bucket along. Freaking dish cloth cotton. I have been having pain again recently...not sure why...stress? Cool post Margene. Kinda reminds me of Mim and her feet. :)

[hillary]

What a great "H". I too looked through the pictures - searching for someone who knits like I do - zilch. I hold my yarn in my left hand in a way that feels natural to me but I've never seen anyone else do it quite that way. That's what happens when you learn from a book. Anyway, I broke my left wrist as a teen and it took surgery, a steel pin, grafts, and 13 months in and out of casts before they pronounced it "as good as it's gonna get" and sent me on my way with warning of arthritis in my future. It hasn't effected my knitting yet and I hope it never does.

[Vicki]

Love it. Perfect "H" post!

[Ann]

When I was working on my master's degree, I took a poetry class. We ended up not just reading but actually writing poetry (yikes, me?) and for one of the assignments we had to come up with something mundane to write about -- to make into poetry. I no longer have the poem (two houses, two kids ago...) but the idea sticks. My hands aren't like my father's hands...that was the title. Or my mother's or my sisters and brothers for that matter...see, I am adopted. And though I have red hair like my family and blue eyes like some of my family and other things, my hands and feet are very different from those of my parents. When my birth mother found me, and we finally met, the first things I looked at were her hands...yep...she must be related to me. Same funky double-jointed thumb, same nail beds, same general size (big, peasant hands). And, get this...she knits.

[Lisa]

Hands are one of those things you take for granted - until there's a problem. Beautiful post and a reminder to take care of what we take for granted.

[Linda]

And yet again, I pause in my morning routine because your post has made me stop and think at a deeper level than before reading it. Awareness of fingers on the keyboard, thinking about holding yarn. Taking in totally familiar sensation of typing at my desk with refreshed awareness. Worrying about protecting these strong, relatively uncomplaining, complicated systems better than before.
thank you yet again for a new perspective on the intimately familiar.

[Cheryl]

Love this post, just love it! Something abut the way hands look when they're knitting is so fascinating.

[Liz Cadorette]

H is also for Haiku
Hands that knit are best
Never enough yarn for me.

(After every Haiku I have ever written, I have the absurd urge to add, "Burma Shave!")

LOL

~Jazz Hands~

[Theresa]

During the Knitting Olympics, we determined that hand lotion was akin to Gatorade. Essential, perhaps even performance-enhancing.

[Inky]

I love hands -- men's hands especially. they say alot about the kind of man he is.

yay H!!

[Norma]

Oh, what a GREAT H entry! So silly of me not to think of it, since I make my living with my hands.