Knitting, sewing, cutting fabric and other crafts often mean gripping and working with your hands for long spells. When your elbow starts aching, the hobby that usually helps you unwind can feel like hard work. A few changes to your tools, your breaks and how you pace your projects can help you keep creating.

Why crafts can affect your elbow

The muscles that grip and move your wrist and fingers attach at your elbow through tendons. Gripping a needle, brush, scissors or tool for a long time, especially tightly, loads these tendons. Cutting thick fabric or card, wedging clay and squeezing tools add more.

Pain on the outside of the elbow is often called tennis elbow, and on the inside golfer’s elbow, though both can happen with crafts. Both are usually about these tendons becoming irritated from more load than they are used to. In most cases, the tendon is irritated rather than damaged, and settles over the following weeks to months.

Tool changes

Some changes can reduce how hard you grip:

• Use thicker or padded pens, brushes and hooks, or add a foam grip.
• Choose ergonomic knitting needles with wider handles.
• Use spring-loaded scissors, which open by themselves.
• Use a rotary cutter and cutting mat for fabric, rather than heavy scissors.
• Keep blades and scissors sharp, so you need less force.

How you hold your work

Some ideas:

• Rest your forearms on a table or cushion, so your arms are supported.
• Hold tools lightly, and notice if your grip tightens when you concentrate.
• Keep your wrist straight, in line with your forearm.
• Use a hoop stand or clamp for embroidery, so you are not gripping the hoop.

Craft-specific ideas

A few changes for particular crafts:

• Knitting and crochet. Try looser tension and larger needles or hooks.
• Sewing. Use a sewing machine for long seams, and pins or clips rather than holding fabric tightly.
• Cutting. Cut smaller amounts at a time, and use a rotary cutter for long cuts.
• Pottery. Use softer clay and shorter spells of wedging.
• Painting and drawing. Move from your shoulder for larger strokes.

Breaks and project pacing

Long sessions are often what bothers a sore elbow most. Some ideas:

• Work in sessions of around 20 to 30 minutes, with breaks between.
• Set a timer if you tend to lose track of time.
• Switch between tasks that use your hands differently, like planning, sketching and choosing colours.
• Choose smaller projects for a while, or spread bigger ones across more days.

VIDA’s Pomodoro stretches, in the top right corner, can remind you to pause.

Gentle movement during breaks

Something to try between sessions:

• Open your hand wide, then make a gentle fist.
• Gently bend your wrist up and down.
• Turn your palm up, then down.
• Let your arms hang loosely and gently shake them out.

Building forearm strength

Strengthening the forearm muscles helps the tendons cope with longer sessions. Something to try most days:

• Holds. Rest your forearm on a table, palm down for outside elbow pain or palm up for inside elbow pain. Hold a light tin with your wrist level for 30 to 45 seconds.
• Slow lowering. In the same position, slowly lower the tin, then use your other hand to help lift it back up.
• Grip squeezes. Squeeze a soft ball or rolled-up sock for a few seconds, then let go.

Some discomfort during these is normal, as long as it settles by the next day. Building tendon strength takes several weeks, so steady practice matters.

Reading how your elbow responds

A mild ache during or after crafting that settles within an hour or so is usually fine. If your elbow is sorer the next morning, make your next session shorter.

When to get it checked

You should get it checked by a GP or physiotherapist if your elbow is swollen, if you have numbness or tingling in your hand, or if your grip feels suddenly weak.

Building back up

As your elbow settles, you can gradually build your sessions back up. If your pain has been around for a while, this usually happens over months rather than weeks. Your VIDA pain check-in is a good way to keep track of how your elbow responds.

What to take away

• Gripping tools for long spells can load the tendons at your elbow.
• Use thicker, padded tools and keep blades sharp.
• Support your forearms and hold tools lightly.
• Work in shorter sessions and choose smaller projects for a while.
• Build forearm strength steadily with holds and slow lowering.

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