Calling all knitters!

[FollowTheSun]

OMG! FollowTheSun, amazing work! I don't knit, but now I'm dying to learn! And you have joint hypermobility, too?? I have severe hEDS and can't work currently, and I'm sure I'd have to take lots of breaks knitting, but I need more things to occupy my time. What are the best resources to learn to knit, and do you have any other tips on knitting with hypermobility?

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That's exactly what I have too!! hEDS! And my youngest daughter has it too, more severely than I do (three knee surgeries so far at age 14 and mild POTS).

I'm sorry to hear you can't work right now. What did you do? I'm a nurse, and I can still work, thankfully, but it's hard sometimes and I know that I will eventually have to leave bedside nursing. I have a job as a float nurse so I can choose my own schedule. I work pretty much every other day (one day of recovery for every day of work), and I go to work with support hose, soft knee and ankle braces to protect my problem areas. And so far I'm still working, although it's not always easy. I always hurt somewhere. Right now my L shoulder is the problem child, but it's getting better. I have severe IT band syndrome, that's my main issue, but also severely injured my ankle last year, and my L wrist. I also get crooks in my neck a lot when I sleep, and sometimes use a soft neck brace. My weighted blanket is the best thing ever!

Please tell me more about your hEDS if you don't mind. It's hard to find others who truly get it. What are your problem areas? For me it's pretty much everything!

back to knitting: I sleep with a brace on my left wrist, sometimes both wrists in order to give maximum rest and healing between knitting sessions. I have a smaller wrist brace I will sometimes use on the left wrist during knitting, too. I use only the tiny needles, and I take a lot of breaks, which is why it takes awhile to finish a pair of socks. Since I work every other day, I knit every other day so that gives me breaks from it. Sometimes I have to take long breaks for a week or two.

The smaller wood needles are most comfortable. I learned to knit from a friend but the website knittinghelp.com was my main reference to get the basic stitches down. I don't do fancy complicated patterns that involve a lot of bending and twisting. I just do simple knit-purl. It's too bad you probably don't live closer or I'd teach you. You can find knitting classes at most yarn supply stores. Just explain you can only use small needles due to EDS and I'm sure they'd work with you. No bigger than size 8 for sure (I can only use size 1-2).

I have recently discovered painting my nails as a creative outlet. I'm not very good at it but it's fun to change the colors and I watch movies while I paint and let it dry.

I "read" a lot with Audible and podcasts. I was into jigsaw puzzles but bending over the puzzles hurts.