How to Sit, Stand and Knit to Relieve Pain

I have been pretty well sidelined from knitting all week after I overdid it on Monday, so it was finally time for me to watch the video that Liat Gat shared about relieving shoulder, neck and back pain for knitters.

The video features Esther Gokhale, developer of the Gokhale Method, which aims to give people posture and movement that’s more natural. She’s known as the Posture Guru of Silicon Valley and has lots of great tips for positioning your shoulders (she’s doing the shoulder roll on Liat in the picture), sitting properly, taking frequent breaks from sitting (she calls for every 15 minutes, which I don’t think many knitters will do, but it would be good for us), stretching when you stand and lengthening the neck to keep us from hunching over our work.

She sells props that help make the training process easier, but just watching the video and doing what you can with what you have might at least make you more mindful of how you sit when you knit and how long you do it.

Do you ever have pain when you knit? I’d love to hear what you do to counteract it.

[Photo via Liat Gat.]

Next Pattern:

The other day I saw a post from Pinterest about trends for summer and it said one of them was “cultivating whimsy.”

Well, I don’t know where Pinterest has been all this time, but we’ve been cultivating whimsy here at Craft Gossip for a long time. I love sharing projects that are a little different, things that make you smile when you see them, and will make you smile when you knit them and wear them or use them.

Such it is with the Tutti Frutti tee knitting pattern from Bea Creative Knits.

This cute little baby tee is worked top down in the round with contiguous shoulder construction to shape the sleeve caps. There are short rows for the neckline and folded hems with picot edging at the hemline, neckline and edges of the sleeves.

All of this would be great on its own, but then there’s the addition of a super cute fruit icon, which is added with duplicate stitch. There are a lot of options, including strawberry, banana, orange, cherries, watermelon, lemon, blueberries, kiwi, peach, dragon fruit, apple and pear, so it’s likely you can add on your favorite fruit.

It is offered in eight sizes, to fit a bust measurement ranging from 28-30 inches (71-76 cm) to 56-58 inches (142-147 cm). The design is meant to be worn with around 6.3 inches/16 cm of negative ease, but you can choose the fit you prefer. There’s also optional bust and waist shaping included in the pattern if you want to make it even curvier.

This is considered an advanced beginner or intermediate project because of all the skills involved, but it’s sure to be a lot of fun even if some of these techniques are new to you.

Grab a copy of the pattern for yourself form Bea Creative Knits on Etsy.

[Photo: Bea Creative Knits]

Next Pattern:

Have you read?