Crocheting vs. Knitting
Last week I was talking with a friend and the topic turned to Smartphones verses laptop. I discovered that she prefers smartphones while I prefer laptops, which lead to a interesting conversation about why we liked the one we prefer. As I think back on our conversation, it's now making me think about other "this or that" options that people like. One that especially comes to mind is crocheting verses knitting.
If you know how to both crochet and knit, do you prefer one over the other? Which one did you learn first?
Ever since I was a kid, I 've taken my crocheting projects with me when I go places where I might have to wait for a little while, or that I might have some "downtime". For example: the dentist's office, craft shows, etc. Quite a few times over the years, this has lead to conversations with people as they come up to me and ask what I'm making. Sometimes they then share that they, too, crochet or knit and discuss what they are working on.
From these conversations, I've come to find that most people I talk with have a preference with one or the other. Interestingly it seems that a lot of times that preference comes from which one they learned first. Of course this is not always the case and I have meet some people who say they enjoy both and regularly create items from both venues of yarn art.
However, I have found that a lot of the people I talked with that said they learned to crochet first, generally don't like knitting as much. This is the group I'm in. I learned to crochet first, and a few years latter I taught myself to knit using a book. For me, it was difficult to get used to having all the stitches on the needle as you worked the project in contrast to crocheting where you're mostly working on one stitch as a time, finish that stitch and then move on to work on the next stitch. I did learn to knit, but I only made a few items before I give it up and went back to crocheting.
Yet, when people told me they learned to knit first, they generally told me they like to do both. Some have shared with me that they still prefer knitting over crocheting, but that they do create items using both methods.
So, from my very unofficial conversations/polls from over the years, I have to admit that it sounds like if you have a desire to learn both crocheting and knitting, it might be best to learn knitting first. (Ouch, that hurts to say, lol.) But, that way you will enjoy them both. My theory is that when you first learn to knit with lots of stitches on the needle it is then easy to also learn to crochet with one stitch at a time on the needle, but when you learn crocheting first, with one stitch on the hook at a time, it is then more difficult to learn (or get used to) having a lot of stitches on the needle at the same time.
That said, I think that crocheting is fun and relaxing and there's no time better than the present to learn to crochet! There's a few main stitches you need to learn first in crochet: chain, single crochet, and double crochet, and with just these 3 stitches you can create so many beautiful items. Plus, once you've learned these 3 stitches, it's easy to learn so many of the other stitches as a lot of them use variances of these stitches!
Here are some differences:
Crocheting vs. knitting
- one crochet hook vs 2 knitting needles
- Many stitches available vs 2 main stitches (knitting and purling)
- One stitch on the hook at a time vs. many stitches on the needles at a time
- unlimited sizing vs. basically limited to the size of the needle unless you want to make in many pieces and then stitch together.
- both hooks and needles are pretty inexpensive to purchase to get starting creating
- There's lots of variety in yarns and most if not all work well for both crocheting and knitting
- Both are easy enough to learn basic stitches that children can learn!
What project are you working on today? It is a crochet or knit project?
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