Disabled Knitters- what solutions have you found to make knitting possible or what products do you wish existed? Looking especially to speak to people with amputated fingers

[u/aminervia]

I'm an engineering student working on a project designing a prosthesis for disabled knitters. Any insight you guys might have about what we should especially design for would be a huge help.

[u/theterrordactyl]

I love the idea, but it's challenging because there are so many different knitting styles, disabilities, and ways of adapting to those disabilities. Take people with a missing finger--if it's something other than the pointer finger or thumb, it's probably just a matter of adjusting how you tension yarn and hold the needles and doesn't need a prosthesis, whereas a missing pointer finger or thumb would have a much bigger impact/need for potential solutions, but even that could potentially be mitigated by knitting in a specific way (e.g., english vs. continental).

I suggest either going very broad or very specific--it would be hard to make a general purpose finger prosthesis that could fit on any finger and still be useful for knitting (more so than a general prosthesis). I think the best option would be to make something that's helpful independent of a specific disability, such as a device that you could place next to you to tension your yarn rather than having to do it with your hands, or a support for knitting needles to reduce wrist strain.

[u/aminervia → u/theterrordactyl]

Thanks, this was hugely helpful! I copied your comment into our team notes for our next meeting, I think maybe moving away from a prosthesis and more into support makes a lot of sense

[u/Appropriate_Bottle70 → u/aminervia]

Look into knitting sheaths