About a month ago, a lady at our church volunteered to teach knitting classes. Having been crocheting since she was 9 and then knitting as well when she moved to our area and began working in a yarn store, Ms. Judith knows her stuff!
I joined mostly because Xoe has taken a few classes and needed a few more, LOL. And I figured, this way I could help her. I wasn’t expecting to fall in love with it, but boy have I!
So today, our word of the week is knit.
The word has been around since Old English, meaning “to tie with a knot, bind, fasten.” And while the art of knitting has been around so long no one knows exactly when it started, the word has been in English with the particular meaning of “to do knitting” only since the 15th century. (Only . . . LOL)
Interestingly, referring to a piece of knitted work as “knitting” is quite new! That only joined the English language in 1848. (Wondering now what they called it before…)
(Those are my knitting projects thus far in the photo – starting at the left, we have a stitch I just wanted to try so did something that ended up the size of a pot holder, LOL. Didn’t like the yarns though so stopped. Then I decided I’d do a cable knit scarf. I still had lots of the yarn, so I made a cable-knit hat to match [it’s finished, but I didn’t take a finished photo yet]. Those are the same yarn in the two middle pictures, just different lighting, LOL. And finally, I’m trying some toy patterns, so I did a star fish. Just finished that this weekend, and am currently working on a bat!)
Roseanna M. White is a bestselling, Christy Award winning author who has long claimed that words are the air she breathes. When not writing fiction, she’s homeschooling her two kids, editing, designing book covers, and pretending her house will clean itself. Roseanna is the author of a slew of historical novels that span several continents and thousands of years. Spies and war and mayhem always seem to find their way into her books…to offset her real life, which is blessedly ordinary.
I started out as a knitter it was short in duration. I retired the needles and pick up the crochet hook, and never looked back. For me, Crochet is more portable, the hook can be removed without any consequence. I love anything crochet with thread, so dainty and vintage. Either way lovelies can be made.
I usually check out pattern books from my local library, but there are also a lot of stuff online now!
I've only seen a few knitted amigurumi books –very neat! Coming from a knitting background, I don't think you'd have much problems learning crochet. You're using a looping technique to form fabric, but only one stich is "live" at a time (less chance of dropping stitches)! Holding the hook might take time to getting used to, but that's the same for everyone who's learning.
What I like about crochet is that you normally work with less "live" stitches and you only need one hook for each size (in knitting you might need 3 sets of needles in one size –straight, doubled pointed, circular– to do a project). =)
I want to try my hand at a lacy project next. =) Well, after the bat, LOL. I love the looks of them, just need to find a not-too-hard pattern to start myself off with. =)
And the starfish was amigurumi. Ms. Judith lent me an amigurumi book, which is where that pattern came from. Knitting though–I have no clue, thus far, how to crochet. I daresay one of these days I'll decide I need to learn…
Awesome! I crochet and knit –what I like about knitting are the lace patterns … I like the open, airy feel a lot of them have (and where I live, it's not really practical for heavy, keep-you-warm type of knitting projects). =)
The starfish looks great (especially with the striping)! I knit a penguin once for a friend, but I prefer crochet for toys (like amigurumi plushies).