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Tuesday, September 27, 2005

Crochet or knitting? Which is easier?

By emy Tuesday, September 27, 2005
This question comes up frequently. The general perception is that crochet is easier because:
1. only one hook is used
2. it's faster
3. our moms and aunts we know crochet but few knit

Whereas knitting:
1. uses both hands so it's more difficult to coordinate both hands
2. takes a long time to finish

The truth?
I knit & crochet so I'll say it's really your interest. Crochet seems to go faster because of the time, the projects are smaller. But crochet takes up more yarn.



Here's a quick pair of baby booties I crocheted in just under 2hours.
(Similar designs are available for custom orders if anyone's interested - please email me at handworks@gmail.com for details and shade card)



On the other hand, knitting is often seen to be deterring as most of the time, knitters knit up full size garments.

So let's first talk about crochet:



YP had some basic crochet skills at she picked up at a previous store. She stopped frequenting them -- the situations experienced are typical and probably most of us find ourselves in such situations one time or the other:

a. There are several students at any time in that store so the time has to be divided amongst them and not to mention time spent by the coach ringing up sales or handling walk-in enquiries.

b. Started off by making a doily square and the frequent ripping without knowing why there are mistakes -- that is frustrating for any beginner.

c. Not taught to read the pattern in detail so when it came to crocheting the edging, question marks starts popping.

So when she arrived for our first 1-1 session, we just sat down and understood what her objectives are, her skill level & weak areas etc. The next thing we did was to select an appropriate pattern for her and she started crocheting her first wearable baby project!

What she learnt:
1. How to take a pattern sheet and read all the information
2. How to swatch/make a gauge and measure
3. How to read the basic symbols on the pattern chart (very important; so that she could take the project away for a while to work on it)
4. How to count (yes, you'll be surprised how many struggle on the right way of counting!)




Here she is, learning to check her own work against the pattern so that she doesn't have panick when I am not around!
5. How to calculate the repeats
6. The different effects achieved by which loop(s) you conduct a stitch
7. How to identify mistakes

The sense of satisfaction is incredible when you realize that for once, you can work on a garment project with whatever limited stitches you know! My role is just sheer enabling (to assist you to understand better, to clarify) -- to make you see the "why" and "how". I believe that everyone can learn how to crochet or knit if they want to.


Knowing why is there a mistake and how to fix a mistake is really important from the start. So 1st sessions are where you will be taught how to "identify" the correct way of making a stitch while in our 2nd sessions, I usually dive straight into teaching you the basic mistake fixings.

These are the things that I could do in 1-1 sessions since I concentrate on demonstrating each working step slowly to you. Then you have your immediate practice by following suit. We can do it as many times as needed for you to understand the steps thoroughly => This, you can't really get in group classes.
So if you see yourself nodding in agreement to some of the things mentioned above, you know you are not alone.


If you are interested, just contact me to arrange for a preview. Moreover, all spends are covered under the Clickety Click program; sounds good?


Good luck! The next post will be on knitting to fit. Sharing is sexy

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