5 Tips to Improve Your Knitting Ergonomics!

Knitting is known to have many mental health benefits. Unfortunately, it is not always gentle on the body. Most of us have experienced an aching back or pain in the wrists after a marathon knitting session — and often continued nonetheless. We talked to experts to gather easy-to-implement tips so you can minimize the physical discomforts and focus more on the aspects you love. 

Carson Demers (ergoiknit.com), a life-long knitter, a physical therapist with 30 years of experience, and the author of Knitting Comfortably, says: “This is an important topic for today’s knitters because we live in the digital age, where we use the same postures and muscles for using electronic equipment as we do for knitting.” He also points out that we knit differently to our ancestors. "We have fibres, yarn constructions and tools that they didn’t, and knitters need to invest in understanding these things if they wish to work comfortably for a long time.”

Andrea Lui is a certified orthopaedic physical therapist who combined her career and love of the fibre arts to provide wellness products and virtual ergonomic consultations to makers. The message she wants to get across is that good ergonomics and preventing pain is about more than just searching for the elusive perfect posture.  

1. Introduce more movement 

Like all people, knitters need to strengthen, stretch and do cardiovascular exercise in their daily lives. Knitting is a sedentary activity with small repetitive movements, so give special care to the muscles that are used while knitting. “Exercises to improve circulation are important because many of the injuries knitters experience are due to compromised blood flow,” Carson notes.  

2. Strengthen and stretch your wrists 

“The muscles between the elbow and hand control the motions of the wrist. As knitters, we use our wrists a lot. It is important to keep them strong so that we can control our motions well without injury,” says Andrea. The “stop sign” stretch is a good one to do frequently. Hold your hand out in front of you as if indicating to someone to stop. Gently pull the fingers back with the other hand.  

3. Take frequent breaks 

To a knitter, the ultimate night in is binging TV shows and knitting for hours on end. Our bodies don’t always agree. “It’s best to take frequent stand-and-stretch breaks,” Carson advises. “Swing your arms when you stand up to increase circulation to the hands and forearms.” It is also good to shake out any tension in your body. If your body is already aching, take a rest day from knitting entirely and introduce other movements to prevent chronic pain. “Taking a break before the discomfort sets in is the best thing to do,” Carson reminds us.

4. Find the best needles for you 

Needles are another place we can make adjustments. “We are all different individuals, but I typically find that knitters complain more about pain with small (under US 2 / 2.75 mm) and large (over US 10 / 6 mm) needle sizes,” Andrea says. Carson advises us to pay attention to choosing a pair that work well with your yarn and stitch pattern. Hexagonal or square-shaped needles may also help. No matter what you are knitting with, hold your needles and yarn with a relaxed grip, and don’t curl your wrists too much. 

5. See your knitting chair as a tool 

Where you choose to sit when knitting determines your seated posture. The ideal knitting chair is one where you can sit with your elbows at your side, and your shoulders relaxed. Carson says that supporting your forearms can help with shoulder pain. “However, resting on your elbows is another frequent cause of shoulder discomfort because it impinges the rotator cuff. Never bear weight through your elbows while you’re working.”

TEXT: PAULIINA KUUNSOLA
ILLUSTRATION: PAULIINA HOLMA

This feature was first published in Laine issue 24.