I have discovered why crocheters (generally) hold the yarn tail with their left hand.
Knitters (generally) hold it with their right, and I was taught knitting first, so I went into crochet happily holding the tail in my right hand.
Except the way I did it, I'd let go of the crochet hook (or hold it between my thighs), yarn over, and then pick the hook back up. Which turns out to be a lot of strain on a person's hands and wrists, especially the right side. my dominant side.
My overuse issues were not caused by this but rather by a passionate desire that occurred during my summer break wherein I was making an amigurumi (it was my first one) and was so engrossed in it that I'd be crocheting for as many hours a day as I could, every day for like. Two weeks, I think?
(I was young and overconfident, and I very much regret it. I know it was dumb. I probably read about it and just forgot as well. But crochet was the only thing I wanted to do, every day and all day, so I wasn't thinking. I don't want that lecture, I've learned directly via the horrors of life.) (but if y'all wanna share any hand-care tips and tricks I'd be thrilled to hear them)
I almost finished the project, just had some ends to weave in, when suddenly I found that my fingers/hands/wrists were so weak I could not push down the nozzle of a hand soap bottle with just my thumb like I used to. All buttons needed to be approached differently. (The microwave, etc, you get the gist). My hands would be like 'this is moderately hard work you should be paying us for' when I'd literally just be in the bathroom wiping my butt.
Hand and wrist overuse strain sucks by the way. And they'll happen to anyone and everyone, no matter how young and strong you feel!! I'm only 20! So do everything you can to avoid having this happen to you before you mess up your hands, possibly to the extent that they never feel the same again. A guideline I've read online is to take a 20-minute break every 2 hours, but you can also just take 20 minutes every time you even think they're tired, whichever would be more frequent. Don't make the horrible mistake I did!! Your hands are so important and you use them all the time. The list of activities you can do without them is very small and does not have the arts and crafts you love on it. You cannot 100% stay off them no matter how hard you try because you will always have to use the bathroom and open doors and eat food, and it will be a constant ache in the early recovery period which will last a while. Also idk if this will be applicable to everyone but I was prescribed a low dose of Prednisone to take for a week to aid the hand recovery and the pill tastes so bad. Sometimes I can swallow it quickly enough that the taste is less intense and doesn't last as long, but one of the days I had such a hard time with it that I managed to swallow the pill and then I threw up in the kitchen sink like five minutes later after feeling like garbage. It was like half bile cause I hadn't eaten much yet but it was still really unpleasant. To Conclude this paragraph: take care of your hands!!! It's so so important and you will regret it so so much if you don't. Doesn't matter how old you are. It's easy to forget that overuse is a thing that exists and can happen, especially if it's never happened to you. (first time for me. honestly I think it was thoughtlessness and not remembering the dangers rather than it being overconfidence.) Let my warning solidify into your mind as a rule that you will never forget. If you can learn this lesson via warnings rather than directly via the horrors, that would be ideal.
That being said. My hands/wrists/fingers are still not what they used to be (despite it having been two months now), and holding the yarn tail in my left hand significantly helps me now that I'm trying to start up crocheting again (in the hopes that the weakness in my hands is just because I've rested them and now they are not as muscular). I'm weak (or overcautious, but I'm leaning toward weak) still anyway though, can't even do a row of 48 sc (in the round. Idk if it's different straight across) without getting a little tired. Holding the yarn in my left hand balances the work that my hands do so it's a little more equal between my left and right. Which is nice :)
