Crocheting is tough for knitters. Our fingers only remember how to knit! I’ve powered through several hours only to discover that crochet is its own kind of magic and there are many reasons for knitters to love it.
Learning to Crochet
Look, it’s time for me to learn to crochet. I mean to really learn. It’s probably well past time!
About once a week, I’ll get tagged in a Facebook post or receive a text message that says, “Holly, can you make this?” The post or text message will include an adorable photo.
One hundred percent of the time, the answer is, “No, I can’t make that.”
It’s not because I don’t have skilled hands. It’s because the item, whether it’s a hat or a frog, is inevitably made from crocheted stitches.
I get it. Laymen can’t tell the difference. (Sometimes neither can seasoned knitters and crocheters!) They don’t notice the creator working with a hook or needles and they can’t read stitches. They simply see yarn and handiwork and think of me, which I find so flattering.
This year, one of my resolutions is to become a better crocheter, which definitely means I’ll need practice and probably means I’ll need to learn more than the two stitches I can do.
Diving In
I can already crochet a little bit. When I started learning, I figured it must be simpler to learn skills now than two decades ago when I learned to knit. Learning from books and pamphlets worked, but that was because it had to. There was no YouTube and I lived in a rural area without a yarn shop.
Finding resources was simpler this time around. However, I sorely underestimated the persistence of muscle memory. My hands really want to knit. The challenge wasn’t in learning the stitches, but in repositioning my hook each time I shifted it into more of a knitting position.
I decided to break the habit. I threw myself into a double-crochet afghan and finally figured out my rhythm with a hook. Next, a single-crochet temperature blanket to commemorate my eldest child’s first year on earth. It came in around 54,000 stitches. I was so determined to make the muscles of my fingers learn something new!
Sometimes I forget how uncomfortable learning can be. While learning crochet, I’ve also discovered some joys. If you’re a knitter and you’re thinking of learning how to crochet, let me tempt you with the wonderful things this yarn craft has to offer!
Reasons to Love Crochet (for Knitters)
#1 / Crocheting is faster than knitting
I don’t have any scientific data on this, but I could crochet faster after 10 minutes than I could knit after 20 years of experience. By this I don’t mean that my hands move faster, but that the amount of ground that I can cover with a hook is really remarkable.
There are 6-hour crochet afghans out there, y’all! Can you knit an afghan in 6 hours? Maybe a baby blanket.
#2 / Chaining is simpler than casting on
Casting on is one of my least favorite parts of knitting and it’s confusing for a lot of beginners. There are so many ways to cast on and few of them resemble the process of knitting.
Chaining on is easy and you can master it in minutes.
#3 / You don’t have to bind off any stitches with crochet
You only have one live stitch with crochet and when you’re done, you pull the yarn through it and call it a day! There’s no binding off, like with knitting, so you don’t need to learn additional techniques to finish your work.
#4 / Crochet frogs easily and with less risk
When a knitter rips out stitches, s/he has to remove the needles first. For larger projects especially, it’s cumbersome work! Crocheters just pull the hook out of the single live stitch and start ripping. They don’t even need to worry about dropped stitches creating runs.
Crochet Considerations for Knitters
Before you ditch your needles for hooks, consider the following:
#1 / Crocheting Uses More Yarn
Because it’s made of denser stitches, crochet uses more yarn. I’ve seen some estimates that put it at 30% more than knitting something with the same dimensions.
And that’s it.
Future Projects
This year, I’m hoping to learn more about shaping with crochet.
After afghans, I find homewares and amigurumi the most appealing project types, especially when compared to their fiddly and time-consuming knitted counterparts. I’m hoping to dive into rugs, baskets, and adorable woodland creatures, but I do have a bit more to learn first.
What projects would you recommend for someone learning to crochet?
