After recently teaching a classmate how to knit (it’s the first of December and she aims to knit a 6-foot long scarf, with tassels, for her boyfriend – and she wants it to be 30cm wide and expects that she’ll have it done by Christmas day, with only working on it for about half an hour a day), I had to explain the differences (and pros and cons) to crochet and knit to her as she wanted to know what the differences were.

Some differences between knitting and crocheting:

• For knitting, you generally use 2 (or more) needles that have at least one pointed end. For crocheting, you use a crochet hook (generally only one pointed end). Both use yarn (or other material that resembles string) and both can be used to make just about anything. Anyone who tells you that crochet is too bulky to make decent clothes is a liar.
• If you’re using the same type of yarn, knitting generally works up a thinner fabric compared to the crocheted equivalent, which is why people generally consider crochet to use up a lot more yarn than knitting does.
• While standing in a general bookstore, there are generally more knitting books available than crocheting. This concept also applies to public libraries as well as the magazine rack. There is just more knitting publications available. One of my local bookstores has a whole section labeled “Knitting” while the crocheting books are stuffed onto one of the shelves with other general “Needle Crafts & Hobbies” books.
• For knitting, you generally keep more than one stitch ‘live’ at a time (i.e. in use). For crochet, you (generally) keep only one stitch on the hook at any given time.
• Knitting has been around a lot longer, therefore it a more diverse history and also more patterns that are published online and in books.

Some pros to crocheting:

• You “only” ever need to get one hook! (If you only ever use the same weight of yarn…)
• You (generally) won’t need to try to pick up a million stitches back up
• If you’re mad into doilies, there are a lot of patterns out there for you (same with making toilet paper roll covers)

Some pros to knitting:

• Knitting is an old, old, old craft – there’s possibly millions patterns available
• There are technically only two stitches to learn: knit and purl
• People say that knitting uses less yarn that crochet does

Some cons to crocheting:

• People say that it uses (about) 3 times as much yarn as knitting does (however, I haven’t tested out this theory yet)
• It’s the black sheep of needle crafts – I’ve walked into more than one yarn store and got funny looks when I mentioned wanting to crochet something
• If you’re not mad into doilies, it is fairly difficult to find decent published pattern books. However, there are a lot of free resources online as well as crochet magazines and online communities that are constantly coming up with new material.

Some cons to knitting:

• It’s a pain when you drop a stitch. Or all your stitches (I’ve so had that happen to me on more than one occasion).
• I’m pretty sure that there is about a dozen ways to increase the number of stitches you have, as well as a dozen ways to decrease the number of stitches that you have. And they all look different. All of them.
• Double pointed needles. Circulars. It’s like a whole new world opens up after you’ve mastered the straight (regular-looking) knitting needles. DPNs make me want to break out into hives just looking at them (not really a con, but my sister finds my fear of knitting things in a circle to be quite… ‘humourous’).

But which one should I pick up?

Why not both (eventually)? I started off with knitting first and then branched out into crochet and I found that I liked crochet better because I “got” it better. For knitting I can cast-on no problem, and I can count my stitches and knit and purl and even manage some decreases and increases if I happen to have my laptop or a stitch dictionary handy (I can never remember how to increase or decrease) but I can never, ever, ever remember how to cast-off/bind-off. It’s just one of those things. I think it’s because I haven’t completed enough knitting projects just yet. For crochet, it clicked with me. I understood how to chain, single crochet and slip stitch quite quickly. And the half-doubles, doubles and triples just built on what I knew from the single crochet stitch, so it was easier for me to wrap my head around it. But for some things, I will knit – especially if I find a pattern that I happen to like or want to get something to look the way I want it to look. There’s no fool-proof way to make knitting look like it’s crochet or to make crochet look likes it was actually knit, at least for someone who knows the difference.

Some things to keep in mind before embarking on your crocheting and/or knitting adventures…

Both crafts do take money, not a whole lot when you’re first starting out, but it does involve some spending. When I started knitting, I got really lucky. My mom used to knit a lot so when my sister and I decided to start knitting, we ‘inherited’ her set of knitting needles (straights, DPNs and circulars) in all sorts of sizes, as well as a lot of yarn (gorgeous stuff, like wool, llama, and even camel wool from a now-defunct company). However, I know that not everyone can get that lucky with a mom or a relative who has a stash hidden away in a closet.

For starting supplies, you can hit up a local thrift store, they generally have some yarn and some needles and hooks available. Or you can go to a local yarn store and get some supplies there (yarn tends to be more expensive at local, independently owned yarn stores – just a head’s up) or a chain craft store, which will have all the basics that you will need as well as some decently priced yarn (hopefully in the clearance section so you don’t break the bank on the first shopping trip).

If you’re not sure that you’re going to really want to continue knitting/crocheting after your first attempt of a project… Don’t buy a book! Public libraries are awesome resources that your tax dollars already go towards, so go the library and find a beginners guide to crocheting and knitting. When I was first learning, I tended to go for the books geared towards teaching children how to crochet/knit because they had very clear instructions and illustrations (which helped a lot). Most knitting and crochet books do have the basics in the front portion of the books (how to start, how to increase/decrease and how to end the project) before the patterns, so it should be pretty easy to find a book that has decent instructions. And if (for some odd reason…) your public library doesn’t have a beginners knitting or crocheting book, make a request for the library to buy one.

Happy crocheting and knitting!

There are a lot of patterns that you will find online (or in a magazine or a book) that will require you to pay for it. Patterns are generally inexpensive (ranging from a dollar to, at most, usually about $10) and the people who put them up on their websites or Etsy accounts are (usually) the person who designed, tested and is selling the pattern. Now, I say usually because some people are not honest and will commit theft and try to sell someone else’s pattern as their own. But, that is not the basis for this article, it is the idea of being able to find free patterns.

You have a lot of different sources to go to for free patterns and learning tutorials for knitting and crocheting. If you go to your local public library, I’m sure you can find a lot of books that teach people how to start a project, how to do various stitches and even give a few beginner patterns for you to do in the book. This is a great source because if you have a library card, and return your materials on time, you will have the materials to learn for free (minus your hooks, needles and yarn). I’ve found that learning from books geared towards teaching children how to crochet and knit are generally the best illustrated, especially if you’re more of a visual learner. They have simple and clear instructions, as well as illustrated directions to show you how to maneuver the yarn around your knitting needles or crochet hook.

Knitting patterns and tutorials are a lot easier to find online and offline, than crochet patterns and tutorials. Knitting is considerably older than crochet is, knitting has been around for centuries and crochet is the new kid on the block when it comes to fibre arts.

Beyond just inputting “free crochet pattern” or “free knit pattern” into your favourite search engine of choice (even though this is a completely valid way to go), other methods of finding free patterns that you may wish to consider include:

• Joining a free crafting community with a crochet or knit section, such as Craftster.org. Members are frequently posting up their brand new projects and will sometimes include the pattern that they designed for the item, free of charge.
• Joining a crafting community that is focused on fibre arts (spinning, weaving, crocheting, knitting). Ravelry.com is a knit and crochet community that has a very wonderful patterns section. You can select options of free or paid, crochet or knit, yarn weight and type of project (hats, sweaters, gloves, toys, blankets, etc.)
• Your local yarn store and/or an arts and crafts chain store. I will frequently find that there are free pattern pads set up right by the yarn that the pattern calls for. These are generally free (do check before ripping it off the pad) will tell you straight off the bat if it’s for crochet or knit (or has versions for both) and the difficulty level.
• Websites of yarn companies. I’m not kidding, some of those big-name companies that make all that yarn that you use have free patterns (for both knit and crochet) available on their websites. Some will require you to sign up for an account (generally you don’t need to include very much personal information beyond your name, birth date, country and email) and then you have full access to their free patterns. Some companies that do this include Bernat, Lion Brand, Red Heart and Patons. Do you have a favourite yarn company? Check their website to see if they have free patterns!

It is really easy to end up with a rather decent collection of patterns just by collecting the free ones, but remember that just because a pattern is free does not mean that you can use it to make things to sell. Some patterns will state that they are for personal use only and that you may not use them to make items for sale. Some yarn companies will allow you to use their patterns for sales, but only if you use their brand of yarn (which is a fair condition). If the pattern does not state that you are not allowed or are allowed to use it to make items for sale, it is generally good practice to assume that it is not allowed if you cannot track down a way of contacting the designer to ask for permission.

And now that you have all those free patterns, have fun working on all those projects!