HILLSBOROUGH -- Watching Betty Eidenier muscle her way through the final stitches of a woven chair bottom makes it hard to understand how caning could have a soothing effect on her arthritic hands.

A slight woman of 62, she canes on her front porch in Hillsborough when weather permits. Perched in a rocker and wielding an ice pick, Eidenier wrangles the awkward dimensions of an upside-down dining room chair like a lion tamer, harnessing the chair legs between her knees as she hunches over to get a clearer view of where the last few pieces of cane are supposed to go.

For some of the last holes she resorts to shining a flashlight through the narrow opening to see if and where some space remains to thread the fiber through. She uses the ice pick to widen the space, and puts golf tees in the holes to set the cane when necessary.

"Come on," she said, frustrated as she worked to tie the last few knots. "You need three hands."

Again, not something that would appear to have any therapeutic effect on one's health.

But that is precisely what prompted Eidenier to take up caning in the first place. She noticed the pain in her hands a few years ago when trying to open a jar of peanut butter. It progressed into more general aching, and seemed similar to the arthritic pains her aunts complained of as they aged.

Her aunts took up needlework to keep their joint stiffness at bay and strengthen their hands, but that just wasn't fulfilling enough for Eidenier. She took a class on rushing (another form of weaving) several years ago at Durham Tech but said her work looked like a monkey had done it. When the pain started, she thought she'd try weaving again and found that working with cane was much better for her.

The whole process is not completely frustrating or physical -- the first three phases of weaving a seat bottom are actually quite relaxing, Eidenier said. There is a rhythm to it, and once you get into it you can lose yourself in the process.

It's when the holes start to close up that caning starts to resemble wrestling. There are a number of different techniques for different patterns, but Eidenier usually uses the traditional seven-step method for hand caning. Each stage layers another piece of cane into the existing pattern governed by the size of the bottom and the number of holes around the seat edge, and by the end it can be quite difficult.

"I cane a day then rest a day," she said of these later stages. She has been warned to not cane more than four hours in any one sitting to avoid further straining her hands or developing other ailments like carpel tunnel syndrome.

Her home is full of furniture with woven bottoms and backs, from rockers and stools to dining room chairs and ottomans. She simply likes the style -- geometric patterns have appealed to her since the seventh grade, when she used compasses and colored pencils to make start patterns.

But math is not her life's passion. A retired teacher who taught English at Orange High School beginning in the 1970s, this fall is Eidenier's first semester with no work obligations. She volunteers at the Burwell School, but finds herself for the first time in more than 30 years with time to devote to new hobbies. Since she considers herself a novice, she charges less than the standard $2 per hole when doing work for others.

Most woven furniture is no longer made by hand. Bottoming, as it's often called, was a common part of furniture production and was practiced by North Carolinians for generations before it became industrialized. People tell her that it's hard to fine someone to repair a woven seat, but she contends that many people know how to but find it too tedious to do themselves.

She appreciates the craftsmanship that goes into something handmade and takes pleasure in making something useful. Woven bottoms will last more than 15 years if they are taken care of, she said.

A porch is a perfect place to cane, she said, since she can squirt the cane down with water and not worry about getting the floor wet. Moisture in the air also helps keep it pliable, so being outside on a humid day is preferable to the dryer air inside her home. It is on her porch that you'll be able to find Eidenier caning away the pain in her hands -- she now has no problem opening peanut butter jars, and has never taken medication for arthritis.