I went back east to visit family and got back a couple days ago. I took one extra shirt, two pairs of underpants and an extra pair of socks. My plan was to wear the same pants and shirt for the time I was there, and I’d wash my socks and underwear every couple days in the sink and washing my pants and shirts once or twice while I was there. I pack light clothes-wise because I don’t really care about clothes, but primarily so that I’ll have more room for my knitting and crocheting. I like to take just a carry-on–no checked baggage–so I pack things to keep my occupied on the plane and in the airport, so there is little room for clothes.
I took the tank top I mentioned in the last post (crochet) and a pair of socks (knit). I’m really enjoying crocheting again. Gosh, I have such a complicated relationship with crochet.
Just like I’ve come full circle with my thoughts on synthetic yarn, I’ve come full circle with my thoughts on crochet. I think part of the problem was that I was trying to do everything with it (because I didn’t know how to knit). Then when I learned to knit, I thought knitting was better in all respects than crochet, and I was kinda mad at crochet because it wasn’t giving me the same type of fabric that knitting does. But I think I’ve come to a point of acceptance with crochet where I understand that it is its own craft and it has its own limitations (knitting does too). But there are positive things about crochet and those should be enjoyed for their own merit.
Here are some random musings about crochet and knitting:
* If you’re going to crochet a garment, use thin yarn. You shouldn’t use anything thicker than DK, unless perhaps it’s for a coat. Fingering and sport are great for tops.
* Crochet definitely looks better when the stitches are smaller.
* Some things really shouldn’t be crocheted–like socks for example. If you want to make socks, learn to knit.
* There’s nothing wrong with using crochet primarily to make afghans and dishcloths.
* Because of the variety of stitches, crochet can look more interesting. It’s a shame that so many people just make granny squares and boxy, thick, and stiff sweaters.
* Crochet will never be as elastic as knitting.
* Crochet is about a 1/3 faster than knitting, but it uses about a third more yarn.
* Crochet stitches are thicker than knit stitches, so if you want to knit ribbing on a crocheted sweater, you can double the yarn to make the thickness more consistent between the ribbing and the body of the sweater.
* It’s a bigger pain in the ass to try on something as you go with knitting, because all the stitches need to be slipped to a thread. With crochet, you just pull your loop up longer so it doesn’t get pulled and unravel and try it on.
* Crochet increases and decreases are always straight (no leaning), so shaping is a breeze.
One of the things that sparked me recently was going through a lot of my books I had stored at my folks and find my Harmony crochet stitch book. I was looking at all those stitch patterns and thinking, Yowza! That’s gorgeous!
I think I’ll probably have much more of a balance between knitting and crochet projects.
