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I confess, as someone who does neither (but wants to learn!), I’m ignorant about whether my lovely friends are sending my kids hats and scarves and blankets that have been knitted or crocheted (and honestly why it matters). But, hey, I’m always up for learning something new!
Come along with me for the ride, why don’t ya?
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Knitting and crocheting have things in common: they both involve yarn, they both produce cozy garments and blankets, and picking them up as a hobby can give your mental health a boost.
Here’s how they start to diverge.
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Knitting requires needles, usually two (though it is possible to use just one, or as many as five!), and they’re always pointed.
For crocheting, you’ll use hooks, and you’ll only ever need one. Also, you only have one “active loop” on your hook at a time.
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In knitting, you line up loops of yard up and down the length of your needles, and pass them between the needle, as well.
If you’re looking for an easy way to tell whether something was knitted or crocheted, the latter’s stitches look more like knots, as opposed to the flatter, less bulky stitches from knitting. Materials have changed a ton in the past several years, though, and the multitude of options means there’s more crossover between things that can now be knitted OR crocheted.
Fun Fact: Knitting and crocheting can be used to depict complicated mathematical concepts like hyperbolic planes, Lorenz manifolds, and the like.
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Fun Fact 2: During WWII, women living in places like occupied France would act as spies, knitting messages into garments and passing things like train schedules and troop movements to the Allies in innocuous baskets containing “women’s work.”
Both hobbies have long, storied traditions, and their communities are out in force online – there’s no better time to pick up some needle(s) and have a go!
