Crochet or Knit? The Preference is Mostly Personal

I am coming pretty late to the needlework craze. For most of my life, my evenings have usually been spent reading or writing. And for the last few years, most evenings that I am not spending trying to keep hyperactive children in their beds has been sprawled in front of the television, grateful just to do nothing.

Crochet or knit? On one hand, knitting seemed to be the latest thing. Maybe crochet was too easy, or too old fashioned. The differences lie in who you ask, and what their personal preference is. And then again, many people choose to learn and enjoy both forms of needlework.

Knitting is generally a favorite for wearable clothing. The knitting stitching creates fabrics that range from gauzy, to dense, stretchy or stiff, all with as much detail and color patterns as the maker desires. Knitting has been done since the end of the first millennium AD, as an example of a finely knitted pair of socks from ancient Egypt suggests. With the advent of commercial knitting machines, though, knitting has become more of a social activity that has gone in and out of favor in the centuries since.

It's obvious even to a person not interested in needlework that knitting is enjoying a resurgence of popularity. I lost track of how many books on the how and why and when of knitting are on the popular shelves of bookstores. Project ideas, patterns, even conversation forums abound on the art of knitting, including Learn to Knit.com, where I learned the following information.

Knitting basically has two stitches.....knit and purl that form the basis of most designs and stitches. Knitting is done by using two needles and a continuous strand of yarn. You make a slip knot onto one needle, and cast on the number of stitches that you need for the project. Then both needles are used, drawing the wrapped yarn through the loops on the other needle. Circular needles, ones that have a point on each end, are very popular because there is no need to turn the knitting project at the end of every row, and no need for seams.