If you read the September 13th edition of the Wall Street Journal then you’ve probably already read the article titled, “Walked Into a Lamppost? Hurt While Crocheting? Help Is on the Way,” but this didn’t come to my attention until today.

Curious, I read the article (which you can find here).

It turns out that the medical coding system is undergoing a major overhaul and the number of codes is increasing greatly in number. As a result, the codes will give a lot more information than they did previously. Y93D1 the code that designates an injury sustained while crocheting (or knitting).

While the author of the Wall Street Journal, Anna Wilde Mathews, article clearly found it amusing to think that one might get injured while crocheting, the fact is that these sort of repetitive motion injuries are not at all funny for the people who suffer them, and this article by the crafter known as Rhelena, details her tips for preventing crochet injuries.

My favorite was this:

Have several different projects going and switch to a different project every couple of hours or so.

While I am seldom able to work for two uninterrupted hours, without question, I excel at having several different projects going at any given time, and just today, I found a cache of them.

It started with this bag:

This was an experiment with the crochet method known as vintage vertical stripe. Now that I see how close it is to finished, I plan on taking the 10 to fifteen minutes needed to complete it so I can have it in my done pile.

I think it will make an excellent reusable shopping bag.

Contained in the bag itself was this experiment in crochet that was inspired by a small tote made of wire and bottle caps:

I began this before I learned to use the projects feature at ravelry, so while I am able to identify the yarns, the details of the hook used are (at least for the moment) lost to history.

Also in the bag were these pieces for a bear I began making from Narumi Ogawa’s book, Mr. Funky’s Super Crochet Wonderful:

As a child, I loved the mix of orange sherbet and vanilla ice cream, and I was attempting to recreate my affection for that particular confection with this bear.

When I resume work on the amigurumi for the Pediatric Infusion Center at UC Davis Medical Center, I will definitely have to finish this fellow up so he can be included.

The last item I pulled out of the bag were these pieces for Nicky Epstein’s “Fiesta Flower Handbag”:

The original pattern is for a felted bag. I used Red Heart Super Saver and a much smaller hook to see if I could make an unfelted version. While I personally love to felt, not everyone has the facilities or the wherewithal to do so, and I thought the bag was too magnificent to be limited by the materials.

And if you need to find the code for what ails you (even if it’s not crochet), you can use this search tool to find it.