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Would You Like this Microwavable Pain Relief Ball?

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good medicine microwavable ball

Judith M. is the winner.

I am having such trouble explaining what this is. I don’t think the brand exists anymore, but I want to say it was called a Good Medicine Ball. I reviewed it years ago and never really use it, so I thought it was time to send it on to someone else who might.

What it is is a fabric ball filled with some kind of fine material (it’s not rice or poly beads, I’m not sure what it is but I think it’s scented, too) that you can heat up in the microwave and hold in your hands for relief from the pain of too much knitting or other aches and pains in your hands.

Or if your hands are always cold like mine are, this might be just the thing to warm and soothe them a bit as well.

If you’d like a chance to win this ball, leave a comment on this post before the end of the day Sunday, June 25. I’d love to know if you have any tips for cutting down on pain from knitting. I just know I need to stretch a lot and take a lot of breaks, but I don’t always follow my own advice!

Thanks for visiting, commenting and sharing, and good luck!

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Comments

  1. Love the color of this
    medicine ball! Sounds
    like it would be a great
    help.
    Carla from Utah

  2. I would love to have this, I have found that my wrists and fingers hurt during and after I knit. I guess it’s because of cutting hair for 17 yrs ????.

    I love knitting and this would be great to soothe the pain away.

    Thank you for the opportunity to win this.

    Pam Hayes

  3. I usually take project breaks. If I’m knitting, then I work on a crochet project, and visa versa. It seems to help. But I
    mostly power through the pain if it’s not too bad.. 🙂

  4. i have a long sausage shaped one of those called a wheaty bag. its brilliant for helping soothe my fibromyalgia pain! but because its full of wheat and i zap it in the microwave i do tend to whiff like porridge lol!!

  5. I’m so bad about breaks and stretching. Sometimes I just soak my hands in hot water and that helps.

  6. Make sure you put a cup of water with it in the microwave when heating up to prevent the contents burning! I have one with wheat and one with rice.

  7. I would love to have this. I had surgery on my elbow. That would be perfect for the elbow.

  8. I went through physical rehab for 6 weeks after a long intense several months of knitting and crocheting. The repeated small movements had caused pain all the way up to my shoulder. Now I am careful to stretch, stop and do “push ups” against the wall, anything that has larger movements to counteract the smaller movements. This would be great to have to put on the shoulder while doing the smaller movements. :>)

  9. I too am guilty of not taking enough breaks. this would make a nice little reminder to take breaks if it sat next to me while I worked,

  10. hi sarah I made a knitted pair of mitts but eliminated the top so it was open. I knitted pockets on the top side of the hand with little flaps and a button closure. then I sewed 2 pouches to go inside the pockets. I fill them with cherry pits which hold the heat very well plus I threw in some lavender. it works great for me and I hope it works for you.

  11. I usually realize after I am hurting that I need to stretch. I never think to do it before starting a project.

  12. My children are boys. We had thousands of what we call bouncy balls around the house when they were growing up, small very hard round rubber balls. On a table, I roll my hand, particularly the thumb area, over them. Feels great and helps my hand pain alot. This was not my original thought. I found it on a knitter site a while back.

    I would love the pain relief ball for my mother.
    She has debilitating arthritis and we are always looking for new pain relief ideas. Looks hand made?

  15. Oh! It would be wonderful to get some nice relief with a gadget like this after a few hours of intense crocheting or knitting! Please pick me!

  17. Weeding, crafting, quilting takes its toll on our hands. This would be heavenly relief! Thank you for this kind offer.

  18. Ironically, I was just thinking this morning I need 10 heating pads so I can put them on all my joints!

  19. I would love to win this ball. My hands hurt after working with wire for jewelry making. Using pliers and hammers take their toll on my hands, wrists and arms.

  20. I would love to have one of these for my cold and achy hands! They are always cold and ache when I crochet and play with polymer clay.

    Thanks so much for the opportunity to win one!
    Denise Dennison

  21. Several years ago I was crocheting while my grandson was bouncing those small 1 inch bouncy balls. They are made of really hard rubber and bounce pretty high but to the point they bounced into my lap and I started rolling 2 of them around in my hands. To my surprise some of the stiffness and aching went away. So now that is what I use to help with the pain. They are really cheap to buy, only a few bucks for a back of 4.

  22. This sounds wonderful! I have RA but am an avid knitter. My mom taught me when I was 6. I’d love to MAKE one!

  23. When my hands start to ache a bit from knitting I switch to crochet or cross stitch and the different movements seem to help ease any pain.

  24. Love the purple! I squeeze soft, squishy balls at regular intervals. These balls are big, thick balloons filled with dry flour! I also will spread Vicks VapoRub or some sort of Capsacian creme on my hands that gives some refief…

  25. I’ve seen something similar for wrapping around your neck, but it’s too cumbersome for sore hands. What a great idea for stiff fingers. I can even envision tucking it between the sheets to warm my cold feet!

Have you read?

Knit a Log Cabin Blanket with All Your Scraps

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]