Patent ID: 7874181

Claim:
A knitting needle providing ergonomic benefit to a knitter holding it with the fingers and hands and using it with at least one other similarly configured knitting needle to make knitted loops with an elongated strand in arrangements that create two-dimensional and three-dimensional shapes, wherein until the intended shape is completed, loops are stored on at least one such knitting needle and then transferred with and sometimes without the addition of newly knitted loops repeatedly from at least one such knitting needle as a donor needle to a recipient needle while the intended shape's surface texture is produced and its size continually increases, said knitting needle comprising: an elongated shall having at least one pointed end and a tapering work area adjacent to said at least one pointed end, said elongated shaft also having an exterior surface; and multiple spaced-apart and mixed-level elevation changes associated with said exterior surface of said elongated shaft each having a perimeter configuration that does not create drag and does not diminish sliding of loops across donor and recipient needles, said elevation changes also being selected from a group consisting of elevation changes having a thickness dimension and extending outwardly beyond said exterior surface of said elongated shaft and elevation changes having a depth dimension and extending below said exterior surface of said elongated shaft, said elevation changes further extending laterally around said shaft and along said shaft away from said at least one pointed end starting at least from a location of approximately one to two-and-one-half inches from said at least one pointed end, said elevation changes also only partially covering said exterior surface while creating a varied topography that gives knitters many opportunities to vary contact point alignment between the elongated shaft and the knitter's fingers and hand holding it, that provides pressure relief to portions of the knitter's fingers and hand during the creation and transfer of knitted loops from donor to recipient knitting needles, with the opportunity for frequent readjustment of finger and hand positioning around said shaft such that the fingers and hand holding said elongated shaft repeatedly encounter differing selections of said elevation changes and pressure relief topography each of the many times said shaft is re-grasped by the knitter's fingers and hand during knitting activity, thus allowing the opportunity for knitting activity involving at least two of said elongated shafts to occur with enhanced comfort of the knitter's fingers and hand holding it, greater speed, and for longer periods of time while reduced incidence of repetitive motion injury, less pain, reduced joint damage, less incidence of hands becoming prematurely tired before the knitter wants to stop, less incidence of hands and fingers becoming numb, and less incidence of hands and fingers aching from the repetitive motion inherent in knitting activity are also experienced.