My Life in Stiches: Knitting vs. Crochet

In the years I spent crafting, I realized that people are either knit or crochet. Most people. My husband and I are an exception to the rule: we do both. My husband taught me to crochet and I taught him to knit. Yay for being weird.

I also think it’s weird that people can’t tell knitting from crochet. I can’t tell you the number of times someone asked me if I was crocheting while knitting and vise versa. To me, they are two totally different animals (needles=knitting, hook=crochet). But recently, when someone else mistook my knitting for crochet, I started thinking about the differences between the two.

So here is the Unofficial Terri Haynes Knitting vs. Crocheting list.

KNITTING

Pros:
1. Better looking pieces. Knitting produces garments that don’t smack of homemade.
2. Yarn usage. Knitting uses far less yarn to complete small projects.
3. Ease of correcting mistakes. Now that I’ve learned how to do it, correcting my knitting boo-boos are simple.
4. Travel Friendly. Most knitting projects are small enough to stick in a bag and go. I knit on the Metro all the time. I don’t think I would try that with crochet. Also, knitting is the only thing I can do in the car without getting motion sickness. Bonus!

Cons:
1. Pain. I find that when I’ve knitting for a long time, both hands hurt, instead of just one.
2. Financial impact. With crochet, you buy have to buy a maximum of three set of hooks, and that’s if you want bamboo or a set of small needles for crocheting thread. With knitting, not only do you have to purchase needles in the right size, but you have to buy ones with the right length and even double pointing needles. And you need stoppers for the end of your needles. All that adds up after a while.

CROCHET
Pros:
1. Crochet is fast. In the time it takes me to knit one baby blanket, I could do three crocheted ones.
2. Multi-tasking. I find I can multi-task, say watching a movie or talking on the phone, easier with crochet than knit. But that might be because I haven’t been knitting as long as I’ve been crocheting.
3. Colors. To me, and I may be in the minority, changing colors in crochet is easier than in knit.

Cons:
1. Wrist pain. With the circular motion of crocheting, your wrist tends to hurt before your hands.
2. Cheesy factor. No matter how nice your crochet, it still looks cheesy (unless it’s a blanket or something). I saw a little boy in a crochet hat one day and I cringed.
3. Patterns. There are many patterns out there crochet, but after a while, they all started looking the same to me. There only so many afghans you can make. And you can’t really make nice socks.