I like knitted things. I’d like to make knitted things. However, I’ve tried knitting several times and I just can’t get the hang of it. The different size needles and yarns and stitch counts and varieties throw me right off. I’m just knitting impaired.
Would crocheting possibly be easier? I’ve had several people tell me it is. I don’t want to spend money on supplies for that stuff unless I can get assurance from crocheters that even the most bumbling fumblehead can do it. Is there much (if any) counting of any kind involved? That’s the kind of thing that throws me off.
I can crochet, I can NOT knit, and to call me a bumbling fumblehead is a bit of an understatement. Crocheting does involve counting, but it is sensible counting, at least to me.
You can learn to crochet for a couple bucks – buy one hook and one skein of yarn to make a potholder. If you like crocheting, you can always buy dozens of hooks, 47bazillion patterns, and all the yarn ever produced. If you don’t like it, use the hook to get hair out of drains or pull a snag to the inside of a sweater.
I can knit, a little, but I can crochet like a fiend. If you ask me crocheting is a lot easier and also involves much less counting and “keeping track” of things. I am completely counting impaired – I pretty much had to give up on knit ribbing because I couldn’t count to 2 without losing track – but I’ve made many crochet projects.
Knitting is probably more versatile but crocheting is much, much easier not to mention faster for basic stuff like scarves and blankets. I think its also easier to travel with since the hook is smaller and less likely to poke the person sitting next to you.
PS - for your first crochet project make sure your yarn is light-colored and smooth textured. Check it for its potential to split by rubbing it between your fingers 4 or 5 times. If it seems to separate into individual fibers, run far, far away. Red Heart is fine and cheap. Lion Brand Wool-Ease is very, very bad.
I’m confident that you’ll learn it, easy peazy japaneezy. A babysitter taught me when I was about eight (that 30 years ago. oy)and I was crazy for it. Didn’t do it for about ten years and then was able to pick it right up again. It’s pretty much one basic hand movement, and once you get used to it, you can go at lightening speed without even thinking about it. Very therapeutic, dontcha know. Good luck!
I crocheted a big-ass afghan when I was about 12, and another one when I was in my teens. I’ve never learned to knit, but crocheting is easy, as everyone else has said. I don’t do it any more, because I have problems with RSI pain in both hands/wrists, and probably a little arthritis.
But you can make more and prettier things with knitting.
I think I might pick up one of those kid’s “learn to crochet” kits. That’s probably the easiest way to learn. And that way if I end up being all thumbs anyway, I won’t have spent a ton of money. Cool!
I cannot knit well to save my life. I’ve tried to learn lots of times, including being taught by a very patient and expert knitter (my mom). No dice. Whatever I produced turned out lumpy and ugly. I can, however, crochet. The unfortunate thing is that there are not nearly as many crochet patterns for useful stuff like sweaters, so my house is filled with useless doilies and crap. I also do tatting, which creates even more useless, but delicately pretty, stuff.
The interesting thing is that my older sister can knit beautifully, of which I am profoundly envious, but cannot create any decent results with crochet. Our mother, however, could do both. Do you think there’s a crochet gene and a knitting gene?
I don’t know what those kits entail, but if you could find someone to show you, rather than trying to get it from a photo, I think it would be much easier. Of course, I couldn’t visualize how to wipe my own arse if I was looking at a picture
Almost all of the various reasons given above for why each of you has decided to sentence yourselves to a lifetime of self-imposed knitting retardation could be overcome by spending some time with the single most important knitting book ever written, Knitting Without Tears. Issues with counting, lumpiness, everything, are solved by Elizabeth Zimmerman’s approach. Please give it a try before you really give up.
That said, in many ways crochet is easier than knitting. Whenever I teach an entire newbie how to knit, I start by teaching them how to crochet. It’s a less intimidating way to learn some of the basics of yarn manipulation. For those of you who consider yourselves knitting impaired, if I can’t talk you into buying KWT, then please consider tackling knitting again after you’ve become proficient crocheters.
I appreciate the sentiment, but my counting problems are endemic, not limited to knitting.
When I worked as a bank teller I couldn’t count bills past 10 without getting distracted (I would count large quantities in stacks of 10).
Recently I completed an octagonal crocheted rag rug that had nine sides. Apparently I can’t count to 8 sucessfully either, even after ripping out my work and starting over four times. (It lay flat after I nailed it to the deck and steamed the crap out of it, LOL. Let’s hear it for blocking.)
Although I have to admit that my inability to count to 2 is a new record, I would have to assume that ANY project that entails counting more than 1 row would be extremely problematic for me. (The rag rug only requires that one row be counted, and I managed to screw that up) Since I do not know of any knitting project beyond a simple scarf or strip blanket that can be worked without any increase or decrease (and thus no attention paid to stitch numbers) and crochet is much faster for scarves and blankets, I’m pretty happy crocheting.
I’m quite adept at garter stitch and stockinette but honestly, ever since I learned to crochet, knitting is dead to me. I promised my knitting club I would try sock knitting again after I’m done with my Christmas projects. But honestly, the thought of all that ribbing just depresses the hell out of me.
I don’t use patterns. I hate patterns because it’s like painting by numbers, first of all; I want to be surprised by the result of my work. Secondly, I hate patterns because I don’t want to have to keep track of all the rows and junk. I just want to knit and let the sweater grow organically out of the needles, like knitters have been doing for thousands of years. It’s only since Victorian England that flat knitting and all the left brain mathematics that entails have come into being. *Knitting Without Tears *is about how to knit the old fashioned, “organic” way.
Yes, but is there anyway around the fact that to make 2x2 ribbing, you knit 2 then purl 2? It’s practically impossible for me to focus on that task for whatever reason.
There’s just something wrong with my relationship to knitting, I admit it. I can join and roll strips of fabric for hours at a time but I can’t count to 2 in order to make any patterned stitch come out. 2 of this, 2 of that. switch the yarn back through the needles, then front through the needles, blah, blah. Frankly its more attention than I care to pay to a handcraft.
Knitting just can’t give me anything crochet can’t twice as fast in 75% of the yarn.
I’d like to, also, but I keep getting distracted by other things. Here is a good basic beginner’s page. The part about knitting guilds back in the 13th and 14th centuries is pretty interesting. I wonder what the guild crest or sign looked like? Crossed knitting needles? A spindle? A big ball of yarn? Did I mention I get distracted easily?
You could do 1x1 ribbing, you know. And I may be mistaken, but from what I’ve read on the subject, crochet produces faster results but uses more yarn, not less.
