One of my favorite anecdotes to tell when people ask me if my grandmother taught me to knit is, ‘No! In fact she tells me I should stop knitting so I don’t get arthritis.’ This is hilarious AND true, but arthritis is something I’ve really been worried about.

I knit a lot. A LOT. I tell people I average 6 hours a day, but it’s probably more like at least 6 hours a day. It’s my job! I’m designing and teaching making products to sell and knitting to have things to blog about.

In February I started feeling pain in the back of both hands between my ring and pinky fingers. I bought some muscle and joint cream that helped a lot. When I started feeling pain I put that cream on, stretched my hands out a bit, let it dry, and continued knitting.

About a month ago I started feeling tingling and irritation on the undersides of my wrists. It wasn’t really pain but more like uncomfortable tingling. It freaked me out. When it happened I stopped knitting and picked up a crochet project for the rest of the day. Crocheting gave my knitting muscles a rest.

Crafting Support Gloves

Last week everything started hurting. The backs of my hands, my wrists – the tingling even started extending into my biceps. I stopped knitting and crocheting and instead spent a few days putting together jewelry kits. (I can’t just stop working altogether, right?!)

My twitter friends suggested icing, which I did and which helped, and acupuncture, which I looked into, but since I’ll be in Minnesota in a few weeks I can’t schedule the recommended series of sessions.

I planned to take a few days off completely when I was in Michigan this weekend when my mom pulled out these crafting gloves.

Crocheting Pain-Free!

I put them on immediately and haven’t really taken them off. It’s like night and day! I’ve got no wrist pain and no wrist tingling at all. I have been knitting and crocheting like crazy and my hands and wrists feel awesome.

I’m completely floored! I thought about getting these supports before but I didn’t think they would work. It’s just fabric! What could it really do?

I’m in love. I can’t recommend these gloves enough. If you’ve got any pain or discomfort while knitting or crafting at all the first thing you should do is buy yourself a pair of these gloves.

And, as usual, my mom saves the day. She couldn’t be telling me to get busy, could she?!

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