What is THAT?!?

Did I get you to look?  No?  Oh….

Here is the long-promised bit on knitting. 🙂  The suspense is over everybody, you can chill now.

Now, being honest, that’s not exactly how most people respond to crafters doing their thing in public, but it’s come pretty close before.  When commencing this post, I started to go on a rantle(a rambling rant, but it was a polite rant), but I decided to delete it, and start over.  All you need to know is the #1 most asked question when knitting, knotting, or needling, in public is “Is that knitting or crocheting?”.  The second most asked question is “What are you making?”.  So, I’ve been thinking about this for a while, and here are some helpful tips to tell what exactly that person is doing to pass time in the waiting room(or wherever you come across a crafter).  Normally it’s nice to ask instead of awkward silence, which is good, but here’s some information to help you have a little more knowledge about it.  And just a hint, if it looks like a sock….It’s probably a sock.  I promise there aren’t very many people who will bite you if asked what they are making. 😉 This is looking more and more like my previous rantle, so we’d better get started-

Without further ado, the differences between knitting and crocheting…..

1.  The tools.

Knitting is a craft that requires big needles(as opposed to sewing needles), crocheting requires a hook.  Another difference is how many of the tools they are using- crocheters always have one hook(as far as I know).  Knitters can have anywhere from 2 needles, up to 5.  You never know…..Unless they are using a circular needle- that’s a whole different subject….

If for some reason you can’t tell because someone is knitting with crochet hooks, or crocheting with a knitting needle, keep reading….

2. How it builds on itself.

That really isn’t the best description, but I can’t think of how to say “what you do to make your project bigger, and how the tools help”….That right there doesn’t even make sense.  Bear with me, please.  The difference I am trying to describe is how with knitting you actually have a whole bunch of “live” stitches, where if you take out the knitting needle that they are sitting on, your project will unravel.  Crocheting on the other hand(haha, can you knit with one hand and crochet with the other?  I would love to see you try….), is done where you only have one live stitch on your hook at a time.  So, it’s really easy to finish a crocheting project- cut the yarn, tie a knot through the loop, you’re done.  Knitting has a fancy technique called “casting off”, which isn’t a big deal at all once you get the hang of it, but the trick is getting the tension to match the cast on.  That’s a doosie.  Summary- crocheting looks like it’s hanging on by a thread(literally) to the crochet hook, and knitting has all the stitches on the needle and comes unraveled so easily it will appall you.  At least it has me.  It’s a sad day, but I’ve coped and learned how to fix it. 🙂

3. The appearance.

This one is tricky- knitting and crocheting look totally different.  There are some stitches done in one craft that sort of resemble the other, but for the most part there’s almost no similarity.  Other than the fact that they are both comprised of yarn.  Because this takes specific knowledge of at least one or the other, I’ll stop right there.  Just stick with the other two ways to tell, but know that there is a difference between the appearance of knitting and crocheting.  Try asking someone that, maybe instead of which they are doing.  It could lead to a much more interesting conversation!

So, now you know.  You can shock a yarn-loving person with your amazing knowledge of their work.  Or you can just ask them the regular questions, because that’s what they are accustomed to answering.  Either way, it’s fine.  But hopefully, you learned something today about knitting and crocheting!  I apologize if you were looking for a detailed history of both crafts- I recommend Wikipedia for that. I honestly don’t know a whole bunch about their history, but I do know that they’ve been around for a LONG time.

As always, thank you for reading!  I appreciate your time. And….if you have any more knowledge you can share on how to tell knitting apart from crocheting , there’s an empty little comment box below just waiting for you! 🙂  Or you can just tell me what your favorite craft is!  Or you can take a wild guess which my favorite is…. I’d love to hear it all.  Please enjoy the rest of your week, and  have a Happy Thursday!