I was diagnosed with De Quervain's last November and my physiotherapist had me down to thirty minutes of knitting every other day. Tried cortisone twice — helped for about six weeks each time, then the pain came right back. I wore this every day for a month straight and went back for my follow-up. She tested the thumb and said the inflammation had dropped significantly. I'm back to knitting most evenings and I don't dread picking up the needles anymore.

I've bought so many rigid thumb splints from Amazon that I could fill a drawer. Every single one either locked my whole thumb so I couldn't hold a crochet hook, or fell apart at the stitching inside a week. This one is slim enough that I forget I'm wearing it, but the pad at the base of my thumb keeps everything stable. I've been crocheting granny squares for three hours at a stretch with no numbness creeping in. That hasn't happened in over a year.

My doctor told me if the third cortisone shot didn't hold, we'd be talking about surgery on my right thumb. I am sixty-one years old and the thought of someone cutting into my hand made me feel sick. A woman in my knitting circle told me about Able Hands and I ordered that same night. Five weeks in, the sharp pain at the base of my thumb is gone. Not reduced. Gone. I still wear it every day because I'm not taking any chances, but I haven't needed to cancel a single knitting night since.

Four months of daily wear. I knit in it, wash dishes in it, garden in it. The elastic hasn't stretched out, the seams haven't split, and the thumb pad is still firm. The last Amazon brace I bought cost twelve dollars and lasted nine days before the stitching came apart at the base. I'd rather pay once for something that holds up than keep rebuying the same flimsy thing every two weeks.

I told the women in my Thursday night group that I went from twenty minutes to a full hour and a half without pain and they looked at me like I was making it up. Three of them have ordered their own pairs since. The thing that surprised me most is how little you feel it — I expected something stiff and annoying and instead it just quietly holds my thumb in place while I knit. No snagging on the yarn either, which was my biggest worry

I was skeptical because it looks so simple. How could something this thin do anything real? But my thumb has been aching for two years and I've spent well over a hundred dollars on Amazon braces, kinesiology tape, and copper gloves that did nothing lasting. This was noticeable from the first session. The ache that usually hits around the fifteen-minute mark just didn't come. I knit for an hour, put the needles down, and realized I'd stopped because the show ended — not because of pain. I ordered a backup pair the next morning so I'm never without one.