Knitting; Ergonomic Needles?

Considering just how many stitches go into a scarf or socks or a sweater or afghan or the cover for a convertible and the fact that a knitter performs each and every one of those stitches,  is it not remarkable that knitters are surprised when repetitive motion distress happens?

I wonder just how many muscles are used in the performance of knitting.  It is a performance!  Take some well-deserved bows!  I wonder how many different motions occur.  And how many times for each.  Maybe a swatch should come with this information as well as the number of stitches per inch. Knitting’n’hurting is just awful.

Having once endured a painful bout of tennis elbow (from badminton) I know just how bad repetitive stress injury can be and this keeps me on prevention alert at the first sign of a twinge from over-knitting.  What (finally!) helped in that crisis of tennis elbow and was then also helpful in prevention, has also worked for knitting; namely, with arms straight at side and hands extended with palms parallel to floor, push hands gently but steadily toward floor. Relax.  Repeat three to five times each session.  This really does work.

The idea of ergonomic knitting needles has come to mind in the past and been the topic of discussion amongst  fellow knitters but none of us had heard of such a thing.  Then  I came across the needles shown in the photo in the wool section of a thrift store.  I’m not sure they really are knitting needles but they are interesting to knit with and I am enjoying the experiment.  It may be the simple change of the normal way of knitting with ‘normal’ needles but I do feel there is something in the thick/thin design of these needles that is beneficial to the knitting process.  The thick end is the working end and so the hand is grasping the needle about mid way along.  The soft-edged triangular shape at the thicker end is satisfying to manipulate and the non-smooth surface offers less resistance than one might think and a very nice ‘sound’. 

I am prepared to laugh heartily and enjoy the humour should someone identify these splendid ‘needles’ as something quite different.