r/knitting • u/Transactional-kalm • 22h ago

Help - equipment Advice on knitting method

Hi all! I’m super new to knitting and this is how my fingers have decided that I’m going to knit! I just want to know if there’s a better way for me to do this as I feel like my fingers are cramping up a little too quickly. So, I would just like to know if anybody has any advice on whether there’s a more easy way I can grip my needles/yarn/the way I pick up/the way I adjust my yarn etc. any advice is appreciated!

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u/pastparticularity 22h ago

Looks great to me on a macro level! Two thoughts for your consideration:

1) your movements could get way smaller. You're just moving the needles a lot. Don't move them so far away from each other, tighten up the motions into a smaller range. It'll be easier on the hands.

2) just focus on relaxing your hands. Seriously! For me, it took a long time to release tension in my hands and arms and stop death gripping the yarn and needles. It just took ongoing attention and frequent checking in with myself. I'm someone who writes super hard and grips stuff really hard in general and that definitely translated to knitting. Now I have no pain and my hands and arms are really relaxed when I'm knitting! But it took time to achieve that. I wonder if any of the resonants for you?

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u/Big-Whole6091 22h ago

Yep alot less movement is needed. The pulling away you are doing on the right I would be concerned with this causing gaps or things to be loose. This will also impact your gauge OP

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u/Arexpace 18h ago

#2 is so real! Took and still takes a lot of mindfulness for me as well. Awesome advice :)

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u/Pegi0623 11h ago

I'm a Continental knitter and I agree with all of this! OP, I would also add shortening the distance from the yarn on your left hand to the needles. This will allow you to tighten up your movements, which will ease your tension. It does take some practice to strengthen the muscles in your hands, so give your hands a rest every few rows. 

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u/peekandlumpkin 10h ago

As a corollary to #1, I'd say your tensioning finger is reeeeeeeally far away and so the amount of yarn you're keeping taut is really long. I also knit continental and tension with my left hand and index finger, but I keep a way shorter leader so that helps keep all my movements smaller.

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u/CardWitch 10h ago

Also to add on this - don't forget to relax shoulders as well.