Pin of the Week: Finger Yoga

Since I have been sidelined by a crafting-related injury that has made my hands and arms hurt, I’ve been researching some stretches and things that can make my hands and arms a little stronger and healthier.

It just happened that I came across a pin for Finger Yoga the other day, and while I haven’t explored it completely it does look like it has some interesting stretches, nicely illustrated with big pictures.

It uses the traditional language of yoga to describe these “poses,” including backward arches, forward folds and twists. You’ll find some traditional yoga mudras (hand poses) as well as other stretches that I imagine are also good for people who spend too much time at the computer as well as too much time at the knitting needles (and I happen to do both, so I’m excited to delve into this one a little deeper).

Some of these are downright scary looking to me — remember that you should be really gentle with yourself, don’t stretch to the point of pain and if something does hurt, stop doing it!

Want to follow my Pinterest knitting board? You can find it at that link right there!

[Photo via Finger Yoga.]

I guess I must have had this pattern on my mind, because I had chosen this log cabin blanket recipe to write about, promptly forgot about it and a couple of weeks later started knitting a log cabin blanket using all my pink yarn.

It might stay pink if it makes it to baby blanket sized, or I might add in some pastel green and blue, too, to make a bigger blanket. We’ll see. I’m also holding several strands of yarn together to make a kind of bulky yarn, which means it’s deeply satisfying how much yarn is used even as the project is still relatively small.

In Kristen Finlay’s version, DK weight yarn scraps (or fingering/sock yarn held double) are used to make a simple scrappy log cabin blanket that’s lighter weight than my version. Log cabin is a great technique for knitters of any skill level because it’s worked in garter stitch. The only not completely basic technique you need for log cabin knitting is picking up stitches.

If you’ve never worked a log cabin knitting project before, this is a good introduction, and it is really nice to use all your yarn scraps in one big project you’ll use for years to come.

If you use a lot of DK weight yarn you can keep building on it whenever you finish a project, or if you use more worsted weight you can do the same thing with it, it will just be a little bigger starting out than the pattern calls for. How big it gets is totally up to you.

I have really been enjoying working on my log cabin project, and it’s my current sitting at my desk and need a break knit (do you have one of those or is it just me?).

Ready to start your own log cabin blanket knitting project? You can grab the free pattern from Kristen Finlay on Ravelry.

Need more log cabin inspiration? Check out more log cabin knitting patterns.

[Photo: Kristen Finlay]

Have you read?