Embroidering with disability/hypermobility: tips & tricks? Plus Qs about needles & nickel allergies

I’m completely new to embroidery and just started experimenting with some kits. I deal with chronic pain/chronic illness and am finding it’s a nice meditative distraction when I’m not feeling well, however, my first attempt to pull linen taut in a very tight kit hoop—I could barely pull it at all! Even though the middle wasn’t taut.

I finally had to just pull it as tight as I possibly could *before* putting the top of the hoop on and was able to pull it a little tighter after that, but it was still pretty challenging. My right hand has decent strength from illustration (my profession) but my left doesn’t, and I’m not sure the actual hand muscles I need for this are the ones that have been regularly worked out in my right, since drawing doesn’t really involve hard “pulling”.

It got me wondering if there was a better way to do this/wondering what other issues I might run into, and thinking about how the disability community is great at coming up with “life hacks” for making challenging tasks less challenging.

So I was wondering if there are embroiderers out there who have disabilities and have any good tips/workarounds for managing challenges relating to them when working on a piece?

In particular, I’d be especially interested in any tips from people who have hypermobility issues and/or joint pain. Like the above example of pulling a stiff fabric taut in a very tight hoop when your finger joints are slippy and your hand strength/grip isn’t always the best.

Are there other issues people with hypermobility run into while doing embroidery? (hand cramps I imagine might be one)

And does anyone here with these issues do needlepainting? As an illustrator, I can’t help but love the look of that, and it’s my goal to eventually try my hand at it but I’m not sure if the detail involved would make it more challenging/cause tendinitis issues?

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And a sort of tangential topic: I didn’t realize until recently that needles are usually nickel-plated. I’m allergic to nickel. 😬

I found some brands online that are nickel-free, but I haven’t ordered them yet as I’m not sure what kinds of needles I’m going to use the most. In the meantime, have all these various types of needles in a sewing kit my mom put together for me forever ago (that are basically brand new because I never finished learning to sew) plus needles that came with the kits I ordered.

For others who might have nickel allergies, I have a few questions:

1- Do you find you can work with regular needles for a limited period of time before they become an issue (and about how long, if so)?

I don’t know how long it usually takes me to react to nickel these days because most of my experiences with reactions have been cheap jewelry (mostly bracelets and necklaces) and I’ve avoided that sort of stuff for years (for the reason). The only known reaction I’ve had in recent years was when I had a patch test (but that was on for multiple days).

In the past I think it was within a few hours of wearing nickel jewelry (maybe an hour minimum)? But I think/hope the palms of my hands/undersides of my fingers are less reactive than areas with thinner/softer skin. I know I can touch nickel briefly without an issue. I don’t remember having a reaction when I started trying to learn to sew years ago but I don’t think I was doing super long sessions of it and didn’t do any full finished projects or anything.

2- Is there something I can coat my needles with that will act as a barrier without making the surface rough or too thick?

I saw some people use nail polish but it seems like that would be tricky to get smooth/thin enough and I don’t know if I’d need to be worried about potential sensitizers in *that*. (I have used regular, non-gel polish on my nails for years without issue but it’s not directly touching my skin usually). I have recent experience developing an allergy to a sensitizer that’s in way too many things (sodium benzoate) so I’m just extra cautious now about limiting any excess exposure to potential sensitizers that I want to be able to keep using safely.

3- What about using gloves or other wearable barriers, are there any you’ve found don’t interfere with dexterity too much? I have some nitrile gloves that I use for various things and some finger cots that I got for clicker training my cat (so my fingers aren’t stuck with the smell of gross freeze-dried minnows) but I haven’t tried using the latter at all yet so I don’t know how well they stay on or affect dexterity….and I know the former sometimes make dexterity difficult (I think *maybe* some of my tighter/thinner medical-style gloves might work?) I have fairly skinny fingers/small hands so in general it’s sometimes a challenge to find gloves that aren’t loose on me (I have to use S or XS nitrile gloves).

4- Are there other things I could try that I’m not thinking of? I considered some sort of ”paintable” barrier, like liquid latex (I am not currently allergic to that but again, I need to double check to make sure it’s not a sensitizer) or like…those peel-off face masks or something? Texture-wise I have some glues and maybe some acrylic paints that could work but I’m not sure either of those are a good thing to *intentionally* put on my skin (though I’ve gotten plenty on me while using them for stuff), I‘d need to check the ingredients.

I’m impatient to start one of my kits so I‘m hoping I can make do with something I have on hand for now (or just try using the needles I have temporarily) until I can get some better options.