With my broken left wrist, knitting, spinning and weaving are extremely limited for me right now. A few minutes of spinning or knitting (haven't tried weaving) causes soreness and aching for hours. Between that and the discussion with the hand orthopedist about the high probability that due to the nature of my fracture, I will have long term "significant" arthritis issues in that wrist, I am truly trying to behave and not stress it during the healing process.
I have ordered a Shetland knitting belt and the long double pointed needles it requires in hopes that the left sided support from the belt
might make knitting in my recovery easier and less painful. While the belt is due to arrive this week, it isn't here yet. Schoolhouse Press used to carry them, and for probably over 25 years, I've wanted to buy one. Now that I can justify the purchase, of course Schoolhouse Press no longer carries them. I did find them through Jamieson & Smith's website.
While at Fiber College of Maine, one of my instructors, Mary Lou Eagan, demonstrated how to knit in the Portuguese fashion. Using this technique, the yarn is either looped through a hook on the
left shoulder, or aroun the neck from right to left. The stitches are approached in the usual fashion, but brought up to the front, where the left thum flips the yarn around the needle and one slips the new stich back through and off the left needle. Andrea Wong has a website that sells the hooks and she has been on TV demonstrating this technique. A YouTube video of Portuguese knitting shows the technique.
I've been trying it out tonight. It truly does seem to inflict less stress on the left wrist. My tension is tighter with this style of knitting than my usual
loose-ish knitting in a hybrid Continental style of my own unvention.
The photos of the knitting pins are from Andrea Wong's website.
And so, my knitting education and my intermittent intensive reading of historial and ethnic knitting techniques and tools continues.... It's always nice to be able to completely justify the purchase of some historical fiber equipment!
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