I took up knitting again last fall after reading some hints in Arthritis
Today on how to protect your hands from stress.  The main things that
helped me were using natural needles and natural fibers.  They have more
'give' in them.  Also, now I strictly use a 'round' needle even for flat
work.  The sort that has two fairly short needles connected by a nylon
cord.  It keeps the weight of the work off your wrists.

I still can't crochet, but thats a lot because I always did work far too
tight and that's rough on the fingers.

I was using Alpaca and wool last winter.  But got burnt out when I made a
sweater vest for my grandson.  I even knitted my first even pair of socks.

Now I need to look for some cotton yarn and start a summer project.

Jo

It took me years to be able to knit and crochet adequately. Like every other
activity, unless we're a prodigy, its all about practice practice practice.

Dunno if it helps, but I find the *rhythm* of knittin an crochet the
important part. And its really about muscle memory, just like driving a
manual car is. If I can use the analogy, you are at the point of being able
to get the manual car moving, but you have to *think* about each gear
change, and have to *look* at the gearstick before you change gears. Bunny
hops and stalling is still all too common. Sooner or later you stop doing
that and just *drive*, the changing gears just sorta happens at an
unconcious level. Knitting & crochet is very much the same, once you get
that rhythm and can stop *concentrating* on what you are doing, the tension
sorts itself out and it becomes more like 'constructive fidgetting'.

(and even the most experienced drivers still occasionally stall their manual
cars...)

Yowie