Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Is Knitting Ruining My Shoulder?

Two years of on and off physiotherapy, loads of anti-inflammatories, an MRI and a sonogram, topped off with a painful shot of cortisone, which the doctor doesn't seem to be too optimistic about. Looks like I may be on my way to surgery on my right shoulder. The burning of the bursitis which keeps me up nights always seems worse when I've done a lot of knitting and now I'm beginning to wonder if I need to re-assess the way I knit. I've traditionally been an English knitter and find that my stitches this way are almost machine-like and I'm fairly fast. I know how to knit the Continental style, but I never feel I have the control of the yarn in the same way and my stitches are looser and less uniform. At this point, although it's meant to be faster and should be, I'm still not comfortable enough to make it the faster, better choice. My shoulder, however, may make the switch necessary as that repetitive motion of throwing the yarn around the needle causes me pain.

Currently on the needles: a baby gift for a couple at work who had their first child, a baby girl. I had some leftover pink cotton yarn, so I'm going with the stereotypical color choice here. The pattern is "Demne" by Annie Cholewa. I've never really used the provisional cast-on before so needed to learn that. I'm knitting all these sections and I'm still not clear how it's all fitting together. I'm sure it will all become clear soon.

Thinking about knitting scarves for all my kids' teachers (like 16 of them) for Christmas. I've finished two and have another almost finished. I'm thinking these might be good to practice my Continental stitching on.