I know for most knitters, the holiday season is when Marathon Knitting sets in with a mad rush to get presents all ready on time. Not for this knitter! My Marathon Knitting season has been all of January, and it’s looking like it will be most of February as well.

It all started innocently enough. I happened to have some sock yarn in my stash and, inspired by Mina of the Expat Knitting Podcast, thought I would tackle my first pair of socks in a number of years. No swatching, just dove in and knitted them up. Well, I paid the price for not swatching, as my size 2 needles gave me some seriously oversized, slouchy socks. So, I now have house socks (never a bad thing). I immediately dove in on Smocked Jersey Socks (a Lucy Neatby pattern, and part of her knit-along happening now on Craftsy) using size 1 needles, and realized that’s a fairly fiddly pattern. Naturally, I was totally inspired to my first Mystery Knit-Along (MKAL) by Alana Dakos of the Never Not Knitting podcast, and I also have been working on my sweater for my daughter and finishing up the Braided Fog Vest for one of my sisters. Right about this point, I realized that another sister has a birthday coming up, and I pulled out the yarn I stashed for that project: KnitPicks Stroll yarn to knit up the Owl version of the Check Meowt socks. Not only have I had a lot of projects going on at the same time, I’ve had deadlines associated with each of them.

Yes, I’m that crazy knitter that has to hit every deadline possible. For some reason, I have to be ready for the next clue in the MKAL Right. On. Time, which wasn’t so much an issue in the first two weeks as it was this week where the stitch count is high and the pattern is complex. I still have 11 days to finish the Smocked Jersey Socks, so I’ve come up with a prioritization plan: the Alana Dakos’ MKAL comes first, so I marathon knit until I have that clue finished, marathon knit on the Smocked Jersey socks (I generally have a defined stopping point when I start that session) and then put all my effort into the final steps of the Braided Fog Vest. As a result, the sweater for my daughter is completely pushed to the side, and I’ve decided to pause knitting the Check Meowt socks until I have the Smocked Jersey Socks done.

But this means that I am still knitting at least five hours every day, and I’m finding that I have a little discomfort in my wrists and in my left shoulder. I did some research to help me, and I thought I would pass along these tips:

• Don’t marathon knit if you don’t have to. (HAH!)
• If you are marathon knitting, make sure you are sitting comfortably, and get up and walk around for about 10 minutes every hour. Keep that blood flowing through your body.
• Stretch your shoulders. In particular, stretch your arms over your head and rotate your shoulders back. The more you can open up your pectoral muscles, the easier marathon knitting is on your body.
• Stretch your hands. Stretch your hand gently back toward your arm, and also stretch your fingers back. I’ve also found that activating the pressure point in the ball of my thumb (by pressing two fingers against it) is hugely helpful in getting my hand, my wrist, and even my shoulder to relax.
• Drink LOTS of water. Keep yourself hydrated.
• Watch your diet. It’s easy when marathon knitting to just go for the quick-and-easy whatever is in the kitchen, or to grab something to go. Don’t do it. You’ll sleep better and knit better if you keep taking good care of your body while marathon knitting.

Wish me luck as I wrap up my marathon knitting. My sister’s birthday is in just two weeks, so I have lots to do if I’m going to get her socks to her on time.