My fingers hurt after knitting

I agree that tension is probably the culprit. When I started knitting a few years ago, I made exactly the same mistake: I'd grip the needles like they were going to escape. I'd spend a ton of time with my fingers practically in a claw, without even realizing it. My fingertips would burn by the end of the day. What worked for me was consciously releasing the pressure - I had to knit more "loosely" even though at first it scared me that something would drop. I also switched to shorter sessions (thirty minutes, then a break) instead of knitting non-stop.

Anyway, you need to check how you're holding the needles. A lot of people grip them way too tight without noticing, and that concentrates all the tension in the fingertips and knuckles. Try loosening your grip a bit more each time you catch yourself squeezing. Your hand should be relaxed, almost like the needles are barely even there. If it keeps hurting after you dial back the intensity, or if you see swelling, redness, or it gets worse over the next few days, then definitely check with a doctor.

Some pain during the first two weeks is pretty typical because your skin is adapting, but it shouldn't be unbearable pain that stops you from knitting. If you can barely move your fingers after a session, something's off with your technique or you're pushing too hard with your daily practice time too fast.

What most people don't mention is that two weeks of daily knitting is brutally intense for hands that are just starting out, so the first thing would be to cut back to 3-4 days a week and give yourself 20-minute breaks every hour. Apart from the tension thing that's already been mentioned, try using thicker needles or a project with more open stitches while your skin adapts: working with chunky yarn isn't the same as working with fine thread, and switching up the thickness can really ease the pressure on your fingertips. And if you do some gentle finger and wrist stretches before you start, you'll notice the difference.

Try doing some stretching exercises between knitting sessions - like slowly flexing and extending your fingers for a minute every hour or two. The pain comes more from building up tension without recovery than from the technique itself, so if you add active breaks (not just stopping) it'll probably get better a lot faster than just waiting for your skin to get used to it.

Nobody's mentioning that the type of needle matters a ton 😅 if you're using really thin needles or ones made of a material you don't like (like rough bamboo), your skin suffers way more. First thing to try is switching to metal or circular needles, which let you distribute the weight better and you don't have to grip as hard. And yeah, the others are right about cutting back on how often you knit and loosening up your tension, but trust me changing needles sometimes solves half the problem without having to stop knitting altogether.