Ergonomic Strategies to Avoid Crochet Injuries

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Crochet is an incredible craft that fills our soul with joy, it makes us invent and create things all the time but when you love to crochet for hours your shoulders will cry out in pain soon after. The smart crafter will take good care of her body, maintaining ergonomic posture with many pain-free needlepointing years ahead.

Proper Posture Prevents Problems

Where you sit makes a huge difference when spending long hours crocheting. Select a chair with supports on your back and hold your feet flat-facing the floor. Stop dropping your head and don’t lower down to the hands.

Use your crochet pillow or a lap desk to position the project yarns at a comfortable height. This helps you to keep good neck posture and stop the habit of rounded shoulders that causes upper back pain. Shoulders should be kept relaxed and not hunched towards the ears.

Hand and Wrist Care

Grip your crochet hook lightly — if you have a death grip, tension will be carried all the way up to your shoulder. For finer details, use a pencil grip and for larger projects, a knife grip. Just for an experiment see what feels natural in your hands.

Ensure wrists are in a neutral position, neither bending up or down. Immediately stop if you experience tingling or numbness and stretch the muscles! For Crochet Kits, take a look at //www.woolcouturecompany.com/collections/crochet-kits

Break regularly every 20-30 minutes. If you need to set a time, do it — when you’re working on something it’s really easy to let the day fly by. If you pause, check to stretch your fingers and rotate those wrists, even roll up your shoulders.

Strategic Project Planning

Shuffle between dissimilar project kinds for alternative hand movements. Transition to single crochet between intricate lace, or go from size 10 thread (chain spaces only) projects to a bulky yarn. It also changes up the stress on your muscles so you avoid overworking certain muscle groups.

Get suitable hook sizes according to what you are comfortable with. Small hooks create beautiful lace, but are fiddly and harder on the hands. Challenge yourself with a difficult project or two, then sit down and do something more relaxing over your weekend.

Listen to Your Body

Pain is an alarm, not a signal for you to push through. If you hurt, tingle or have low stiffness after your sessions then you need to either clean up something about the way you are doing them or simply take more breaks.