Avoiding Knitting Injuries...

I don't know about you, but I've knitted much more the past few days during the Olympics than I have in a while. Not that I don't knit every night when I go home...but not usually in 4 hours blocks of time! So last night as I started to feel my elbow acting up a bit, I was reminded of some information I learned at the Yarn Market this year.

• When doing repetitive things, be sure and take breaks. Set an egg timer across the room. When it goes off, quit knitting and go turn it off. Then take a short break. I know that some of the commercials during the Olympics have been great, but taking a break during the commercial times will also help.
• Do finger exercises...running each finger across your palm and back.
• Swing your arms back and forth about 20 times. This will relax your neck muscles.
• Sit on the floor and try to touch your toes. (I know...for some of us this is not as easy as it used to be. Sigh.) Continue stretching to touch your toes for about 5 minutes. This will slowly stretch out the connective tissues in your arms and back. I must tell you that stretching out my arm has helped the tendonitis in my elbow tremendously. I still avoid the ball winder...but my elbow is much better because of these exercises.

Hope your Olympic projects are coming along nicely. Knit on!!