Knit vs. Crochet

My Aunt is interested in what my theories are about knitting versus crocheting. So, let me give a little back story. When I would spend summers at my Grandparents house in Otto, NY my grandmother would always find things to teach me. One year it was swiss embroidery, another year it was crocheting. I fell in love with it. It made sense to me. I don't remember making a lot of stuff as a kid but it was always something that I did from time to time. I got so I did pretty much any stitch pattern and could read patterns, etc. As an adult, I went from crochet to needlepoint to counted cross stitch and then back to crochet. About 2 1/2 years ago, my sister came to visit and she was knitting up a storm. I have to tell you that all throughout my life, I have been around people who knit (my grandmother, my aunt) but I never really got into it. When I saw the beautiful things my sister was making, I really wanted to try it. At first, I thought I would just have to jump off the roof or something because I didn't know what to do with two sticks AND I had no idea how to hold the yarn while knitting. Cast on...bind off.....oh my goodness. Well, I have gotten over that and am an okay knitter and keep plugging away at it. So, here is my not so expert opinion are the pro's and con's of each technique.....

Crochet - PRO

• 1 hook. You only have one live stitch at a time. If you make a mistake, out comes the hook, RRRRRRIPPPPP back to where the error is and easy peasy, it's a do over.
• There is only one basic movement in crocheting....the put the hook through, yarn over, pull back through, yarn over and pull through loops....Voila! only one live loop on the hook. (We're back to that again are we?)
• It's fun and I can do it pretty fast and I don't have to think about it a whole lot once I get a pattern down.
• I can figure out where mistakes are and how I made them easily. I can usually figure out how to make them work or fix them.

Crochet - CON

• Depending on how you hold your hook (and I hold mine in an old fashioned way, sort of like a pencil) you can get some serious carpal tunnel pain going on.
• The resulting fabric can be a little chunky (for lack of a better word.) I guess what I mean is that unless you are working on very thin yarn, it can be a little bulky. It doesn't really have to be and I have made some really beautiful things that were not at all clunky or bulky. So this isn't really a con....it's just a difference.
• I forgot this one yesterday.....Crochet requires more yarn. It takes more yarn (about twice as much) to create a garment than with knitting.

Knit - PRO

• The fabrics and stitch patterns seem to be more delicate and fine.
• There are quite a few more patterns and supplies for knitting.
• It doesn't really have a bad rap.....crochet seems to be the ugly step sister of knitting and some look down their noses at it.
• It's fun and it looks cool.
• I don't have as many carpal tunnel issues

Knit - CON

• Okay, when you make a mistake you either have to live with it or tink (you know it's taken me 2 1/2 years to figure out that that work is knit spelled backwards which is what you are doing when you unknit each stitch.) There are few fast ways to get back to a mistake that's a few rows back. If you take it off the needles then you spend an incredible amount of time picking up those stitches, only to find out that you have missed one. This goes pretty well if it's straight stockinette or ribbing or something but throw in some yarn over, knit two together's in there and it's all over (for me that it.)
• I have to concentrate much more. The patterns aren't intuitive for me. I have to do something over and over and over again before I finally get it! (Sometimes that happens after I bind off, knowing that things weren't quite right. I think about it and finally realize a day or two later....oh, that's what they meant when they wrote AND at the SAME time or "when doing a decrease at the beginning of the row" doesn't mean bind off one stitch AND decrease at the beginning of the row...do I sound bitter....I can't talk about it yet.)
• Everybody's doing it these days.

So, what do I think....I think it's great to know how to do both. I love that I can switch back and forth between the two. I think somethings are better suited to knitting and some are better suited to crochet. I was just given a book that is full of patterns that are both knitted and crocheted. I think that is the perfect type of project. I am looking for just the right one.

There you have it. My opinions about the two. I enjoy both of them and I am grateful that my grandmother put me on the path to have this type of creative outlet.