I use my hands a lot. A whole heck of a lot, and also I do a lot of knitting, every day. I don’t knit particularly fast, but I do knit a lot. It’s only expected sooner or later something in the mechanism of movement would start hurting, and my left thumb has been bothering me, tendinitis from playing my mandolin & gigging quite a bit lately.
Although with knitting I figure I can teach my hands to move in different ways, at least temporarily. My left thumb, that most useful thing, moves in continual little pressing motions, and while I move a stitch to ‘feed’ into the right hand’s fingers looping the yarn, and when I transfer the knitting to be held by the left hand while I reach for more yarn, the left thumb has a light clamping action. It all adds up.
So just for a short time so I can figure out what I’m doing, I’m wearing an elastic ‘bandage’ which keeps my left thumb from moving about much, so I must figure out other ways of doing things. For one, learning how to not feed the stitches so much , trusting that the stitches will make it over to the right hand without my bending and scooting so much with my thumb , and I’m learning to take up my knitting with my right hand while my left reaches for more yarn.
Either warning or fact : knitting excessively , whether for a past-time or production, eventually will cause ligament & muscle problems. Have you suffered injury from knitting in the past or are you presently beginning to ? Then my advise to you is to learn more ergonomic methods right away, and to not think it will just go away without diligent retraining of your movements.
Bandaged but not shackled… I knit on , with a little help from Tiger Balm. Oh, and glucosamine & chondroiton supplements daily.
Jenjoyce Design 
My hands are covered in lumps and bumps. However, I do massage therapy and i do believe it helps my hands. It hurts but helps, if you know what I mean. 🙂
Lizzi, as a professional massage therapist, you know your stuff… I hope I’m doing the right thing with the bandage. My hands are anything but pretty ! But they’re very useful and that is all that matters. 🙂 xx
Whatever works for you, works for you.
Injuries are no fun, especially when they get in the way of things that you love. I hope that your hands feel better soon.
Thank you Simone… it’s more preventative measures now, with only a little annoyance of pain, I am not going to allow it to get really bad. xx
After breaking my sesamoid bone and being unable to use my right hand for six weeks, daily massage, exercise and stretching became a part of my daily Tx for my hands. I keep that up now to keep my hands happy and healthy. Hope you heal well.
Ohh,,,, that was such an ordeal when you broke your thumb !!! All better now ? :)xx
I have pains in both bases of the thumbs. My doc said it was arthritis…but I have been knitting for around 45 years and wondered if it was knitting related rather than arthritis.
I will get some hand support gloves..might be worth a try
I am already off the bandage for the most part, I was using it just to make myself think of options when my thumb was not as mobile as it unbandaged. I have the onset of a little arthritis too, just a little.. so all in all, I am finding Tiger Balm useful. 🙂
Good to hear you are at the farmer’s market again. I always love it when they have live music at ours. I creates a wonderful atmosphere.
The best part is as I mentioned, found the person who manages the farmers market is on Ravelry ! I sent her Penny Candy Socks and she’ll hopefully knit them up … how sweet is that ! 🙂 xx