#which ive been meaning to do for literal years

[jezebelgoldstone]

YES OKAY DESPAIR NOT I'VE GOT YOU FRIEND.

Briefly: I learned how to crochet when I was six, and did so regularly until I was in my mid-twenties. Then I started getting pain in my thumb. It got so bad and I was so scared of carpal tunnel and arthritis that I stopped crocheting for about 5 years. I didn't talk to a doctor or anything about it because I was convinced they were going to tell me I could never crochet again, and I knew I just couldn't handle hearing that. Somewhere in those five years knitting started to hurt my wrists as well, so I prioritized typing and gave up knitting too.

So like I said about 5 years after I hadn't crocheted at all, I finally managed to work up the emotional fortitude to talk to my doctor about it.

If you have pain from doing your hobbies, things that make you happy, then that means that you are having pain that is lowering your quality of life and you do deserve medical care for it. I'm not a doctor & you should talk to your own doctor too because our situations may be very different, obviously.

That said! I'm going to tell you what worked for me!

Me: my joints hurt when i knit or crochet. I'm worried im developing arthritis.

Dr: How do you manage the pain when you knit or crochet?

Me: I don't. I stopped doing either a few years ago.

Dr, emphatic: oh no no no! You can't STOP! That will just make it worse!

Me: ...wat

Dr: if you stop doing those motions with your joints, or stop using those joints altogether, that will cause them to deteriorate!

Me: so i just... push through the pain...?

Dr: the pain is caused by irritation and swelling, which will ALSO cause deterioration. What you need to do is take an anti-inflammatory like ibuprofen about fifteen minutes before you start knitting or crochetting. Do that for a while and you won't develop arthritis.

Me: sounds fake but okay.

Fam I took an advil and fifteen minutes later knitted or crocheted for an hour or two like three times and i was fine.

So after the doctor told me that there was no reason I should have to give up two hobbies that I love so much, I started paying more attention to how I crochet and I have come up with the below list.

Jez's 3 Easy Steps to Not Fuck Your Joints While Crocheting or Knitting

See above re: talking to doctors and also using ibuprofen to manage joint irritation swelling & pain.

COMFORTABLE ERGONOMIC TOOLS. Can't stress this one enough. For knitting, this means using only wooden knitting needles and never metal or plastic. The lighter the needle the better. For crocheting, this means getting those crochet hooks with the rubber padding on the end. Yes they are more expensive than the plain metal hooks, but guys, these are life-changing. Life-saving, even. Also I know we all hate shein and amazon, but amazon has sets of the lightest bamboo needles ive ever found at like ten pairs for seven dollars, & shein has padded ergonomic crochet hooks in all the normal sizes generally for like under two or three dollars a pop. Get you some bamboo knitting needles & padded ergonomic crochet hooks I am begging.

Pay attention to your actual movements when you crochet! I hold the crochet hook a little funky (like a pencil instead of with my whole hand) but that alone isn't enough to do harm. It turns out one of my problems was that I was using the hook to grab the loop and pull it onto the shaft of the hook, and in so doing I was rolling my thumb. So I was rolling my thumb literally every stitch. I started keeping the hook still and pushing the point through the loops instead, thereby also keeping my thumb still, et voila! It took a little while to get used to, but this also has been life-altering!

Don't give up! You deserve to be able to do the things you love and that make you happy without pain and without stressing that you're destroying your body! I know it seems like the kind of thing that doctors wouldn't pay attention to, but your hobbies causing pain lowers your quality of life and you do deserve medical care for it! Even if your doctor sucks or you don't have access to medical care, you can still do other things that will lessen the stress on your joints!

ok quastion for the crocheters. has crocheting ever caused you pain on the base of your thumb in the hand holding the hook?? I dont think I'm holding it weird or clenching my hand and yet. guess what's hurty

[sphyrne]

last nights sketching

[bacchuschucklefuck]

okay unironically I love so much that porter is like this world SUCKS its BAD here and it HURTS you why do you care abt it!!! and literally every single bad kid is like ngl we just hate ur ass it does not matter what ur philosophy is

[al-luviec]

compiled whatever this is (and I run out of tag space)

meh HoT gifs (3/?)

[ghost-bard]

something has possessed me i think bc why am i in the year 2024 thinking about merlin/gwaine but also merlin/lancelot but also gwaine/merlin/lancelot. what have i done to deserve this

[girlivealwaysbean]

it's not sinking in that today might be the last day in my house and town for many months to come

[mc-tummy-blur]

Didn't expect the year of our Lord 2025 to get into Alan Rickman, but I guess that's how it goes sometimes

The year of getting into an actor that so far I have only seen portray maladjusted men

[rubber-glovs]

Oooohhh the urge to yap about my ocs and the world they live in......

[riiviir]

hey guys so I just started reading Flatland by Edwin A. Abbott and OMG AHSBNSBSBSNSNBSHZHSHDBFHGGHFHGRJ2KSHSBSNSK AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA I LOVE THINKING ABOUT THE RELATIVITY BETWEEN DIMENSIONS!!!!!!

[iiota]

Teeth are the dumbest fucking part of a human body

[lesbuoyant]

everybodys all lets condemn people with Morally Impure Interests until all of a sudden you have an interest that is suddenly considered Impure and wanes in and out of Public Opinion for many years because nobody actually knows how to think for themselves online. personally i think we'd all be very lonely if we chose and broke friendships based on.... What Video Games They Like and like absolutely nothing else regarding the person's character

[red-dyed-sarumane]

i know the large majority of people see the blorbo post & just share their own without really thinking about it but i wonder how many people i've gotten to listen to oumen mokushiroku bc of it. newcomers this is not my absolute favorite song but it IS required listening for the course. u will perceive my favorite tragic angel lady and her cryptic ass story

[mossterunderthebed]

Y'know what honestly frustrates me about the JJK fandom?

When people make stuff that's like JJK 0 Gojo and Getou talking or whatever, and it's like Getou being totally deadpan about all the horrible things he's doing/going to do/believes in *insert various types of wholesale murder here* and Gojo just laughs along, treating it like it's a joke and Getou's so cute and funny.

Like, no.

Gojo did NOT indulge Getou's philosophy. That was The Whole Point.

What do you think the whole encounter on the street in front of a random KFC was about? That's why there was such a deep divide between them. That's why Gojo was furious and disbelieving. That's why they didn't see or talk to each other for TEN YEARS even thought they were best friends.

Because Getou killed people, chose to kill people, and chose to keep killing people. Because he dehumanized an entire, MASSIVE group of people who were good, bad, kind, cruel, and everything in between, men, women, children, everyone, simply because of something they couldn't help and didn't even know about. Because he took advantage of those that Gojo had decided and felt duty-bound- even though he didn't like it much- to protect.

(And all that came BEFORE Geotu ever stepped into the picture. Yeah, Gojo whines about having to protect the weak and admittedly thinks it's a drag, but he still does it. He was raised with the ideal that he should do it.

That wasn't a Getou thing. Getou believing in that as a teenager did change the way Gojo saw it, but it wasn't New. He already was raised that way, believed that way, and intended to live that way, or why go to Jujutsu High at all? Even if he found it annoying, he was still always going to become a sorcerer, not only because it was kind of his only option- which is it's own kind of horrible- but because he was a sorcerer, down to his bones.

He had that madness in him, and maybe it was nurtured, but that doesn't change the fact that it was there. He wanted to be a sorcerer, loved fighting and killing curses, whether it had anything to do with helping others or not.)

I know it's just fanart and fandom, and look, I myself really like art of Gojo and Getou in their good days. They were kids and they were happy. While I don't ship them, they were best friends, and their own kind of soulmates, I've never not believed that, it's too forking obvious. Gege practically shoves it down our throats and literally designed them to balance each other and be Messed Up Forever when they split. Every official art we see of the two of them practically has them as each other's reflections. I know, okay? I can't not know.

I just get really frustrated when Gojo's disregarded like that. He is his own person with his own beliefs who's made his own choices. They both are. And maybe it's dumb to get up in arms about a story that's not even real, but Gojo's a really imperfect person who struggles and suffers, and at the end of the day? He tries his best.

Even with all the power in the world, he's still only human. He can still only do so much. He's expected to be more than he is a lot of the time, and still he really tries. He wants to make the world better. He wants to make life better for the next generation. He has, in a way, given up on himself, but he's still going, because he knows his place in the world is still one that needs filling.

That's a narrative that means a lot to me. It's disheartening when it's misinterpreted because of the fun, silly, giggly side of his personality, or the reckless, careless, cocky side, both of which are wonderfully, excruciatingly human.

That's all.

[shortnsweetgf]

i need to vent about something that happened and i’ll do it in the tags of this post and i dont really know how to trigger it but it may be triggering so yeah maybe dont read it idc i just need to talk to the void

[britneyshakespeare]

Nothing I love more than having a little tea w the office ladies

[deoidesign]

please take as much time as you need to rest and recover. burn out is so hard and takes so much to heal from. your art and your supporters will still be here when you get back :) take care <3

Thank you very much

Unfortunately, my situation doesn't really allow me to take the time I need. I've got a ~two month hiatus scheduled for my midseason, but much like my first hiatus I'll most likely be working double time during it...

It's unfortunate because I could really really use a bigger break!

Having the time and flexibility to work on other projects really fires me up and keeps me going, and being able to take a guilt free day off for family and friends is necessary to my mental health, and I've been having to turn people down lately...

This is a very kind message, and I'm sorry to vent in response! But I just feel transparency about the pressure I'm under is necessary and important. I'd love to take the time I really need, but due to deadlines and that pesky "needing money to live" I can't.

But, once the series is over I intend to take a pretty big break before I start whatever I'm doing next! I've got so many short stories and projects planned that I want so badly to get to, I can't wait to really get to truly dive in to them!