Wednesday, February 21, 2007

OMG.

This killed me, but not as much as the comments since - to the people who swear those washcloths are knitted, I just have to ask - what the hell size is your monitor, and what kind of resolution does it have? How do you see the stitches? Because from where I am sitting, they certainly could be crocheted. Y'all do realize you can crochet a square and then add a two row border around it like that, right? Please tell me you do know that, and this snark isn't more on target than I'd like to think.

Apparently I am fortunate to have been raised in an open-minded crafty family, all the aunts and my mother both knitted and crocheted. They may have had a preference because they were better at one than the other, but I was raised to believe that all fiber crafts are created equal. Based on the admittedly limited sampling of the old ladies who taught me, I have to wonder if the knitsnobbery is a recent phenomenon, tied to the knitting fad and a few million new knitters who have never seen crochet with real style.

Thanks to Rachael for the funniest thing I've seen all week.

4 comments:

vi said...

oh man....blogger ate my post!
hihi sweetie
I knit
I crochet
I embroder too
I also make dolls....
( and cookies.... tomorrow I am making a butter cookie crust for a peach custard tart with swirled purreed blackberries for spin group)
everything has it's place
there is a right technique for intended purposes....
crochet is a 'stiffer' fabric....in my humble and bumbling opinon
so I tend to like non-apparel things with crochet

knit to me is more supple and drapey....( unless you attempt to knit with my first homespun laceweight...in that case thing WIRE LACE)

and some stuff just beg to be woven and sewn

but again...... totally my humble and bumbling opinion


vi

Catherine said...

I agree, crochet in worsted weight for a garment is a horse blanket. And unfortunately, the patterns that are easy to find are all horse blankets. But if you have a fine fiber and you'd really like to make a sweater out of it and it's too fine to knit, it can work in crochet because crochet offers firmer fabric options. I have a ton of fine cotton that I swatched for knitting and gave up in despair, but as a lacey crocheted sweater it will have enough substance to be wearable. And the flip side - KNIT a RUG? Please. That is a job for crochet. You want a thick, squishy bath mat, grab some hefty cotton and a J hook and go for it. Half Double Crochet, it's thicker and it won't stretch lengthwise like garter stitch.

geogrrl said...

That video was really cute. I think the "washcloth" was knit, not because of any snobbery, but because of what I could see of the yarn weight and the drape and stretch as the actress manipulated it. It moved like a piece of knitted fabric.

There is a certain snobbery there. There has been a great effort in the past few years to move knitting out of the realm of "old-lady-dom" but the same can't be said for crocheting. It's still sweet old grannies crocheting doiles or horseblankets (aka vests) in hideous colours.

I don't care what a person does--work with binder twine, knit/crochet--as long as it satisfies your creative urge, go for it.

I'm more of a knitter, but I can crochet. The two produce very different fabrics with different properties. It depends on what you want the fabric to do. Knitting has a lot of drape and stretch--in some fibers, that's not an advantage. Crocheting has little stretch, and in some cases that's a good thing.

I have two afghans at home, one I knit, the other I crocheted. The knitted one is lighter and warmer, but took a long time to make. The crocheted one is heavier, not as warm, and took much less time.

I'll remember what you said about the really fine yarns--I would have just double-stranded them for knitting, but crochet may be more the thing.

Anonymous said...

Wow, Catherine lighten up honey! The video was hilarious! I knit, but I can't crochet. Nope, just can't seem to wield a hook to make any kind of regular fabric.

I do think the washcloths were knitted. Mainly because I've made over 50 dishcloths in that same pattern. It was my grandma's pattern and my mom - who can't knit - loved when I picked up knitting so much that she sent me cotton yarn and the pattern so I could gift her and all of her friends with dishcloths.

I agree with those before that knitted fabrics in a worsted weight tend to be more drapey which is how the fabric looked. I think having her refer to them as crocheted was part of the joke. But regardless, the video was too funny because there are knitting snobs out there who totally feel the way these two were portrayed!

Your job uncertainty and stress must really be making you tense.