Textile Work Pain.

It's been a very full day again, with more online conference time again, and some more to follow - it feels like it should be Friday already!

The CTR conference covered sensory aspects of textiles and textile work today, which included Alex Makin telling about sensations when embroidering on the Cuthbert Maniple. Her paper made me realise that textile work can often be rather uncomfortable - I've never thought twice about that, however, I just took it for granted that something will hurt if you work too long at one thing, or happen to have bad posture. Usually, I try to plan my worktime so that I can take enough breaks to recover, but it has happened that something went wrong and then I had to work longer hours than I'd prefer. Then, yes, it can get uncomfortable and even painful. I remember very well the notch in my finger that happened after spinning a lot for a long time without a break!

One thing that also helps in preventing pain or discomfort is making sure you have good posture when learning a new (not only textile) technique. Once you've gotten used to slouching while weaving, it is very hard to un-learn that... which is the reason why I pester people in my weaving classes to sit straight. At some point, though, even the best posture will not be enough...

What's your experience with textile techniques and the pain(s) they can cause?