To Knit, or to Crochet, that is the Question….
I have always considered myself a knitter, since I picked up the craft properly aged 21. I’d learned to knit as a child, and forgotten again, so when I was introduced again to it at a house party, drunk, by a friend, also drunk, it all came flowing back.
My mum collected these books in the 70’s, and as a teenager I’d been fascinated by them. I bookmarked all the pages on dressmaking and worked out how to do macrame and basic alterations.
So when I woke up hungover after the party, these were my go-to books for the next few weeks, while I reminded myself how to cast on and knit my first few rows. After that, I was hooked, and made swatch after swatch in royal blue acrylic yarn, trying out different combinations of knit and purl, increasing, decreasing, and learning how to pick up dropped stitches.
My first finished project was a deformed blue bootie that wouldn’t have fit a doll, let alone a baby. Shortly afterwards I discovered Knitty.com and bought a copy of Stitch and Bitch by Debbie Stoller.
I can’t remember when I decided to give crochet a go. I’ve got a Ladybird guide to Crochet, I think I picked it up in a second hand bookshop, but I found it so hard to follow it never really happened. One of the girls in my knitting circle started making herself a granny square blanket and I loved the way they came together, and tried, and failed to make one of my own. Then I made a discovery – The Happy Hooker! I’d found Stitch and Bitch so easy to follow and helpful, it made perfect sense to learn from Stoller’s crochet book.
So I can do the basics, but it still confuses me that the abbrevations are different in the UK and the US, and I have to go back and check every time. I’ll always consider myself a knitter first, but I think having that extra skill helps and makes everything that bit more versatile. Also, knitting seems to have more drape to it and I love cables, and I just prefer the over-all look to knitting.
Having said that, I have an ongoing crochet project, which some of you will have read about last week!
This baby is gonna be huge, and I don’t anticipate finishing it until at least 2020. There’s just too much knitting to be getting on with !
I love vintage “how-to” books! I’m constantly on the lookout for them.
I learned as a child too and then learned more, as a young mother, from a great big book of needle craft (Reader’s Digest, I think), that I checked out of the library so many times I thought I owned it. And I’ve learned so much more from YouTube tutorials (as an over-forty empty-nester). Turns out, you can teach an old dog, and all that.
The crochet project is going to be gorgeous!
My mum also tried to teach me macrame, but I never got the hang of it.
I’ve also considered myself to be a knitter first and foremost, but I love the occasional crochet project, I’m also quite proud that I master both the techniques with ease, so I can live with not knowing how to do the macrame.
My mother did macrame in the 1970s. I never got into that. How many plant hangers does a person need? (Well, none really, in my book.)
I am really enjoying crochet (which I just learned last fall). I like the way I can undo my mistakes so much easier than in knitting. Because I make a lot of mistakes! Love your squares.