Category WTF Were You Thinking : Fiber Art Related Injuries

Common Fiber Arts Injuries

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Given that this is the month of the WTF series, and I have never actually discussed the common injuries that most of us in the fiber arts industries get, I figured that today would be a good day for that.

Fiber arts, encompassing activities such as knitting, crocheting, embroidery, and weaving, are beloved pastimes for many. However, these creative endeavors can sometimes lead to unexpected injuries. In this blog post, we delve into common fiber art injuries and offer valuable tips to help you avoid them, ensuring that your passion remains both enjoyable and safe.

Common Fiber Art Injuries

Repetitive Strain Injuries (RSIs)

Repetitive strain injuries are a frequent concern among fiber artists. These injuries occur due to the repetitive motion of hands and fingers when stitching, knitting, or weaving. Common RSIs include carpal tunnel syndrome and tendonitis.

Symptoms of RSIs can include:

  • Pain and tenderness in the hands, wrists, or forearms
  • Numbness or tingling sensations
  • Weakness in the hands

To prevent RSIs, it is essential to:

  • Take regular breaks to stretch and rest your hands
  • Maintain an ergonomic workspace
  • Use tools that are comfortable and easy to grip

Eye Strain

Working on intricate patterns and detailed designs can put a significant strain on your eyes. Staring at fine stitches for extended periods without proper lighting can lead to eye strain and discomfort.

To reduce eye strain, consider the following tips:

  1. Ensure your workspace is well-lit, ideally with natural light
  2. Take frequent breaks to rest your eyes
  3. Use magnifying glasses or lamps for detailed work

Back and Neck Pain

Long hours spent hunched over your projects can contribute to poor posture, leading to back and neck pain. Poor posture can cause strain on your muscles and joints, resulting in chronic discomfort.

Ways to prevent back and neck pain include:

  • Setting up an ergonomic workstation
  • Using a comfortable chair with good lumbar support
  • Practicing good posture by sitting up straight and keeping your shoulders relaxed

Tools and Techniques for Injury Prevention

Ergonomic Tools

Investing in ergonomic tools can make a significant difference in preventing injuries. Ergonomic knitting needles, crochet hooks, and scissors are designed to reduce strain on your hands and wrists.

Look for tools that offer:

  • Soft, cushioned grips
  • Lightweight materials
  • Adjustable lengths and sizes

Stretching and Exercises

Incorporating regular stretching and exercises into your routine can help keep your muscles flexible and reduce the risk of injuries. Consider these simple exercises:

  1. Wrist stretches: Extend your arm with your palm facing down and gently pull your fingers back with your other hand.
  2. Finger stretches: Spread your fingers wide apart and then close them into a fist.
  3. Neck stretches: Gently tilt your head from side to side and forward and backward.

Conclusion

While fiber arts are a delightful and fulfilling hobby, it’s crucial to be aware of the potential injuries associated with these activities. By taking preventive measures, using ergonomic tools, and incorporating stretching exercises, you can enjoy your creative pursuits without compromising your health. Remember, a little attention to ergonomics and regular breaks can go a long way in ensuring your fiber art journey remains joyful and pain-free.

Alcohol and A Crochet Hook

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This one is actually fairly recent, circa 2009. I will admit that coming up with a title was not easy.

So I didn’t find much about this one, just an article in a small newspaper in Huntsville.

A guy had drinks with his ex, they ended up in bed together. He woke up around 11pm to find a crochet needle in his urethra. He claims that he has no idea how it got there.

After an x-ray, doctors were able to remove the hook.

A couple of things with this one. First off, i have my own theories on how the hook ended up where it did. If it’s a kink thing, that’s fine, more power to them. We don’t kink shame. However, if its not, i want to know what he did to her, to make her want to shove a perfectly good crochet hook where she did.

Why Crochet Hooks Require Supervision Around Children.

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This one made me wince, as I do have a child in the 3-6 age range.

As anyone who have, or are around small children, know, they are prone to running around and falling.

This is the case for a 4-year old girl who happened to fall onto an upright crochet hook. It punctured her upper left chest.. The child that proceeded to remove it herself. According to the case reports that I found, she was only taken to the hospital because of her annoying crying. After the initial examination, the little girl was taken to emergency surgery for a emergency median sternotomy.

She went on to stay at the hospital for another 5 days before she was cleared to go home.

I Really Don’t Recommend Using A Crochet Hook This Way

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This WTF story comes with a trigger warning, as it has to do with self harm.

In April of 1934 at the Rochester State Hospital, a 55 year old woman was admitted for having a number 12 crochet hook in her head.

This woman had thrust the hook herself into her right temple, she used the heel of her slipper to hammer it further after her hand couldn’t move it further. That worked to get it into her left temporal orbital wall. The hook was completely buried under her skin. Surprisingly she did not loose her vision.

After having the hook removed, she went on to have a full recovery, with no lose of vision or disturbance of ocular mobility.

A CASE OF DEATH FROM PUNCTURE OF THE BRAIN BY A CROCHET-HOOK

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On Wednesday, April 19, 1876, A post-mortem examination took place in which the founding conclusions are as follows: death had resulted from injury to the brain by a crochet-hook.

Follow along with me…

    Florence B–, aged two years and a half, was playing by the fireplace with her sisters, when she either fell down or rolled over. A crochet-hook, which in some way was fixed by the fender or hearth-rug, penetrated her head for about two inches immediately above the left ear. One of her sisters pulled it out at once, without breaking it, “heard it grate” against something as she did so, and noticed that there was no bleeding. This happened on Monday evening, April 17th, at about eight o’clock. The child is then described as having become very restless, and convulsed during the night. The next day she was noticed to be drowsy at intervals, occasionally waking up and screaming. No paralysis was observed, and both pupils were natural. Towards night she became semi-comatose, and died about four o’clock on the morning of the following day (Wednesday), some thirty-two hours after the injury had been sustained. AT NO POINT WAS A DOCTOR CALLED….I mean really….NO DOCTOR WAS CALLED. 

    The autopsy, twelve hours after death.-The body was that of a well-formed and well-nourished child; rigor mortis slightly marked. The left temporal region was found to be somewhat swollen and cadematous; and with a little difficulty a small punctured wound was found where the needle had penetrated. Supposing a line to be drawn from the summit of the left ear to the eyebrow of the same side, the position of the wound would be in this line at a point some what nearer to the eyebrow than the ear. On removal of the scalp there was evidence of extensive extravasation of blood in the left temporal region. When the superior attachment of the temporal muscle and the temporal fasciae and all clot had been carefully removed, a pinhole opening was seen at once just above the temporal ridge of the frontal bone and a little anterior to the coronal suture. Blood oozed through this opening directly it was cleared. There was no blood between the dura mater and the bone, and the opening in the dura mater was readily recognized. The dura mater was carefully removed from the brain, and immediately beneath it in this left temporal region there had been abundant hemorrhage, so much so that the clot formed was, in its centre (which corresponded with the puncture), about half an inch thick, and its area was somewhat larger than a crown-piece. No morbid appearances were noticed in the brain-substance itself, and there was no hemorrhage into the ventricles. The head alone was examined.

    It is believed that should the child have been seen by a doctor they might well have survived. More to the point, I know we let our children play but please take note and be careful. 

Unusual Use for a Crochet Hook

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I read recently that when you fill out paperwork for an injury..sorry a crochet injury, the medical code that you’re going to have on your paperwork (if you receive medical care) is a C93D1. So the girl with her home made medical procedure and then the Child’s mouth…listed as C93D1. 

    Which I think helps out next patient..I mean can you imagine going to work on Monday and your work friends are like “bro, how was you weekend?” And well you spent Saturday in the hospital and Sunday recovering because you spent Friday night drinking…got roofied and…what?? Ended up with a crochet needle stuck like a catheter up your penis….. “oh, well I’m a little sore today I was in the hospital with a C93D1 injury…” Naturally, they’ll think it was sports related and the topic will change to other sports related injuries…moving on…mean while your dick may take sometime to recover…

        Let’s rewind and start from from the top:

    So, its 2009 and unnamed man meets  unnamed women (an ex girlfriend we are told later) in a bar….

    Man wakes up the next morning with a crochet needle stuck all the way up his extended dick. He goes to the hospital and has a procedure to take it out and bring down the swelling in his penis. Police investigation issues. The man has no idea how it got there; thus his claim he was roofied. 

    Side note: Flunitrazepam, also known as Rohypnol, is a benzodiazepine used to treat insomnia and assist in anesthesia. When said drug is used inappropriately its called a roofie. It often results in memory lose and headaches. It also shows up in the blood stream; no word on his lab results. 

    Fast forward to 2011: Said very similar looking guy is seen on pornhub, in the fetish section, doing a girl with a crochet needle stuck in his dick…..

    Word to the wise this can harm you and her…so just….don’t ‘kay? ‘Kay. 

Please know,that if this is your kink, I pass no judgement on you. This site is a no judgement zone.

Crochet Injuries: Ear Cleaning?

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So for this next injury-not vaginal and not penis related (though readers I promise there are a few more of them in the future) Our next injury occurred when a young man perhaps had and itch; though he said he was cleaning out his ear) and decided to use a Tunisian Crochet needle…..like what???

    Ossicular injuries usually occur in association with fractures of the temporal bone, with longitudinal fractures being more commonly associated than transverse fractures. Dislocations of the ossicular chain can also occur without fractures, either due to a penetrating injury or blunt trauma. We are presenting here a case of an ossicular injury which was caused by a metallic Tunisian needle, when the patient had made an attempt to clean his external ear canal. A young male presented to E.N.T Department with severe vertigo and conductive hearing loss. Patient’s symptoms started soon after he was trying to clean his ear with a metallic Tunisian needle and he injured his ear drum. Patient was sent to Radiology Department for a high resolution CT scan of the temporal bone. High resolution CT scan revealed a stapediovestibular dislocation with anteriorly displaced stapes foot plate, abutting the opening of eustachian tube (external rotation), along with a malleoincudal dislocation. Although dislocation of stapes can be associated with perilymph fistulas, however, no fluid was seen in the tympanic cavity in this case. Still, a diagnosis of a stapediovestibular and a malleoincudal dislocation associated with perilymph fistula was given, due to complaint of vertigo. To the best of our knowledge, the dislocation of ossicular chain by direct trauma caused by a needle after an ear drum perforation is a rare entity. Patient was given complete bed rest and vertin (betahistdine) for controlling vertigo, after which he recovered.

    Sooo…maybe use a Q-tip next time….or…anything else…k? K.

Death by Knitting Needle?

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    Chest injuries are always serious, and in a strange turn of events there are six such cases where a penetrating chest wound was caused by a knitting or crochet needle. This is more common than you thought injury is a thing for a couple of reasons, 1. Self defense against muggings and rape and 2. Accidents. This second one is the one we will discuss today. 

    An 89-year-old spinster who lived alone in a council bed-sit was found lying on the floor, complaining of chest pain. She was transferred to the casualty department and on examination, a sharp metal object 1 cm in length was found to be protruding below her left scapula. She was also observed to be coughing up blood. A chest X-ray revealed a diagonally placed knitting needle entering between the left ninth and tenth ribs, passing under the arch of the aorta to the apex of the right hemithorax. A left thoracotomy for removal of the knitting needle was performed successfully. Post-opcratively her progress was good, but she died suddenly two weeks later. The deceased was a slightly built, elderly woman. Examination revealed that the thoracotomy procedure for removal of the knitting needle had been successful, and that the cause of death was congestive cardiac failure due to degenerative heart disease; the year was 1980, I’m not sure at which point they have become able to prove, see, or treat degenerative heart disease but I feel as though if they were in there doing things.they should have seen this; after all microscopic surgery wasn’t a thing as of yet.… Needless to say, “it is difficult to understand how the deceased could have fallen on a knitting needle” the doctor wrote in his post op notes.…but we’ve been here before and we know these things happen and it isn’t that surprising to us. However, the doctors believe in this case it is suspected, but not proven, that she fell on to her knitting basket, where she stored her needles in a vertical position.

Crochet Hook to…the Mouth…..?

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    Gynecological problems are not the only injuries to appear in the annals of the medicals books as having been caused by a crochet needle. They really only get worse from there. Surprised? You shouldn’t be. There’s also a lesson here about carelessness and clumsy children (don’t worry this one is just fine).

    A 4-year-old boy was admitted to the hospital in 2007 after falling down on a crochet needle, which was in his hand. The needle had gone through his mouth and got stuck. Attempts to remove it at home proved futile. This was a double sided crochet needle with one side lodged and the other sticking out of his mouth. 

    His symptoms included; bleeding from his mouth, there was no loss of consciousness, pain or giddiness. The crochet needle, protruding out from his mouth, had penetrated the soft palate. For those of you who don’t know the soft palate, also called palatal velum or muscular palate in mammals is a structure consisting of muscle and connective tissue that forms the roof or the rear portion of your mouth, or oral cavity. Go ahead I’ll pause while you look in the mirror to imagine a crochet needle getting stuck in the back of your throat…..3..2…1 

    Okay as we were saying…..

    He was afebrile and had no neurological deficits. X-ray of the head showed that one tip of the crochet needle had penetrated into the skull. CT scan with 3-dimensional reconstruction showed that the crochet needle had passed through the jugular foramen into the posterior fossa and the tip was embedded in the cerebellar parenchyma. Refer to the picture if you want a general idea about where any of those things are.

    The patient was taken up for an emergency right suboccipital craniectomy. A suboccipital craniectomy refers to a surgical procedure that is performed at the base of the brain in which a portion of the skull is removed to access the surgical objective. The portion of the skull is not replaced, instead, the area is covered with a synthetic substance. He was intubated in the supine position and operated on in the left lateral position. The cerebellum was removed and the tip of the crochet needle reached. The tip was cut with a small bone cutter and both fragments were removed.     Initially there was profuse bleeding from the entry wound in his mouth, which was controlled by pressure. There was no bleeding into the posterior fossa. Once the bleeding had stopped, he underwent usual closure. 

    Postoperatively, recovery from anesthesia was uneventful and there was no neurological deficit. He was started on broad-spectrum IV antibiotics and was closely monitored for 72 h for development of hematoma or infection. As he continued to remain asymptomatic, he was discharged from hospital. At 6 months of follow-up, the child was doing well and had no complaints related to his injury. 

1929 PreTeen with Questionable Friends

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Let’s take a side note here and start a new series. This one will be out every other Friday and (it may make you cringe, laugh or look on in horror at times) will talk about injuries. Injuries are common in every craft; you burn your self with a hot glue gun, accidentally drink your paint brush water (yes that’s an injury to your taste buds and maybe your insides depending on old it is). And we’ve all pricked our finger on a needle, but, here’s the thing did you ever imagine you’d get your crochet hook stuck in the roof of your mouth? How about a perforation of the bladder or brain? No, me neither. That’s real and I’m going to spend the coming weeks telling you all about it. These are not your carpal tunnel type Injuries and they aren’t your grandmother injuries either. So whether you say WTF or immediately have to consider what these people were doing to come by these injuries I hope it will make you come back and take a look at the next one.


We will begin out series (in no particular order) with case sent to Dr. Henry Roth, in May 12, 1929 while he was at Lebanon Hospital, New York. The patient is a female, aged fourteen who several hours before admission attempted to bring on her menstrual flow by introducing a
crochet needle 12 cm. long into the vagina. She was advised to do this by one of her school mates who warned her of the possibility of becoming pregnant in the event that the menstrual flow had not started. Pause for that consideration.


The needle suddenly disappeared after it was introduced into the vagina. She immediately experienced some pain in the suprapubic region and slight pain on urination. There was no increased frequency of urination and no hematuria. On physical examination the patient appeared very small and emaciated. In the suprapubic region there was very little tenderness and no rigidity. There was no bleeding from the vagina which admitted two fingers very easily and without eliciting any pain. Through the anterior vagina wall there was felt about 4 cm. of a long hard object, lying transversely and firmly fixed; while this foreign body was palpated at which point she complained of pain….


An x-ray examination disclosed a crochet needle in the region of the bladder lying in an oblique position with the point end downward towards the right and posteriorly. The following morning a cystoscopy was done under sacral anesthesia. The Brown Buerger cystoscope was easily introduced. The crochet needle was found lying transversely in the bladder with the point embedded in the mucosa just above and to the right of the right ureteral orifice. The blunt end was embedded in the left side and nearer the posterior superior aspect of the bladder. This end was more difficult to visualize. The name and number on the needle was easily read, so
that a duplicate was obtained to determine the actual size. The bladder mucosa was slightly congested. The needle was easily grasped near its point with the cystoscopic forceps, but every attempt to extract it failed.


The patient suddenly complained of abdominal pain and simultaneous with this the object could no longer be located in the bladder. On examination the abdomen was found very tender and rigid all over. The needle could not be palpated any longer through the anterior vaginal wall. It was now obvious that the needle perforated the bladder and was lying free in the abdominal cavity. An immediate x-ray disclosed some change in position compared to the previous film. Immediate operation was done; through a suprapubic median incision, the peritoneal cavity was opened; the needle was found lying free in the left iliac region and removed; there was no peritoneal contamination. A small perforation was found on the left side of the bladder on the posterior surface. This was closed by a small purse string plain catgut suture through serous and muscular coat and reinforced by two interrupted sutures through muscle and serosa only. A Penrose tube was left in the pelvis for drainage and the abdomen was closed in layers. Her convalescence was uneventful. The drain was removed on the fifth day and the patient was discharged on the twelfth day after operation.
Cystoscopy just before her discharge from the hospital disclosed a normal looking bladder except for two small healing ulcers which corresponded to the areas where the points of the needle were firmly embedded in the mucosa through muscle and serosa only. A Penrose tube was left in the pelvis for drainage and the abdomen was closed in layers. Her convalescence was uneventful. The drain was removed on the fifth day and the patient was discharged on the twelfth day after operation.


Cystoscopy just before her discharge from the hospital disclosed a normal-looking bladder except for two small healing ulcers which corresponded to the areas where the points of the needle were firmly embedded in the mucosa.


The most common variety of foreign bodies one encounters in the urinary bladder consists of rubber and ureteral catheters, straws, chewing gum and hair pins. Think that through and join us in two weeks for another episode of WTF Where you thinking.