To Learn Knit or Crochet

Deciding whether to learn to knit or crochet can be the most difficult part of getting into a yarn based craft.

Due to this difficult decision I have come up with a list of pros, cons, and other notes for both knit and crochet.  I am going to separate everything by the respective craft and things will be listed in bullet form.  So, pros, cons, and other notes for knitting.  Then, crochet pros, cons, and other notes.

Knit Pros

    Fabric made from knitting uses 30% less yarn than crocheted fabric does (you can see the article in which I cover more in depth linked here: Why Crochet Uses More Yarn Than Knit).  This knowledge is positive and a good thing to keep in mind, especially if working with yarn from a small store, meaning any yarn that could not be easily bought at any commercial craft store.

    Unlike in crochet, there are really only two stitches that are fairly simple to learn.  After learning both the knit and purl stitch (the two stitches) almost everything in knit can be made.  Any other “stitches” created in knit are just combinations of knit and purl stitches. There is a sort of exception to this simplicity, that is, there are more advanced techniques and combinations of these two stitches.

Knit Cons

    It takes longer to see progress because of the way that knit fabric is formed.  This is coupled with the fact that knit stitches are generally smaller than crochet stitches means that it takes longer to make things through knitting.
    Due to the way that loops are stacked on one another as the rows are formed in knit it is more difficult to fix a dropped stitch (I discuss this more in a different previous article about why it is more difficult in: The Differences Between Knit and Crochet).  It is something that can be fixed, but would be more difficult and frustrating for a beginner trying to fix this sort of mistake.

Other Notes

    While the materials to begin knitting are not that extensive (just the usual suspects of straight needles, you would only need a couple of sizes to start with, yarn, scissors, and a yarn needle).  However, if a knitter wants to continue progressing their skills, they would need to buy more knitting needles.  There are circular needles (that come in both: multiple sizes of needles and different lengths) and double pointed needles.  Something such as a set of interchangeable needles would take care of the multiple variations of the circular needles, these can be an investment, but they would also be an investment into your knitting skills.  I put this in the section for "Other Notes" as opposed to either pros or cons, because it is it is something that may matter more to some people than others.  It is also something that is not necessary to know when beginning since it does not come into play until one becomes more advanced.

Crochet Pros

    The stitches made from crochet are larger than the stitches made from knit which means that crochet is faster and progress is made quicker than when knitting.  This helps give that instant bit of satisfaction or dopamine that comes from seeing how much work you can get done in a relatively short amount of time.  Although, I think it can take a little longer when one is first starting out and trying to just remember the steps to complete each stitch, but I think that it would still not take as long as knit to complete an equivalent project (e.g. knit vs. crochet scarf).

    Due to the way that each stitch is made individually if your crochet hook slips out it is just one loop.  Thus, it is easier to fix mistakes while crocheting because a slipped stitch is something that can be picked up fast and then you can continue on.  It is also more easy to pull apart crochet and redo it, because once again, since there is only a singular working loop on a crochet hook at a time, it is easy to resume after tearing it out.

    People find crochet as something that is learned more easily because you only have to focus on the one working loop at a time and the stitch you are forming.  Whereas in knit, you have a lot of loops on each needle to focus on at once, as well as the transferring of each loop as a stitch is completed from one needle to the other.

    Since crochet is worked by focusing on each individual stitch at a time it is easier to make more shapes.  Such as a flat circle, a cylinder, a sphere, etc.  This is the reason that crochet is the yarn-based medium that is usually used to make three-dimensional shapes.

Crochet Cons

    The opposite of the first pro mentioned in the knitting section means that crochet uses 30% more yarn than knitting does.  Again, for more in depth information on this, a separate article written on this specific topic is linked above.  When using commercially store bought yarn this is still something to keep in mind, but is not a huge deal.

    There are five basic stitches to learn in crochet, along with more advanced stitches that can be learned.  These basic stitches are used the most and many projects can be made with just these.  Any extra stitches learned can help when making more advanced projects.  Some of these more advanced stitches apply the basic stitches in a particular order to create a specific pattern.

Other Notes

    Making a crochet version back to what I mentioned in the "Other Notes" section of knitting, crochet uses fewer tools overall, at all skill levels of crocheting.  While to get started, similar to knitting, you just need a few basic tools: one or two crochet hooks, yarn, scissors, and a yarn needle.  To advance in knit you just need multiple sizes of crochet hooks which is different to knit in which there are different kinds of knitting needles.  To do basic crochet there is only one kind of crochet hook.  Something that I briefly mentioned in the article also referenced above that is linked in the "Knit Cons" section, is that there are multiple crochet hooks.  However, different from knit, the multiple kinds of crochet hooks are more parallel crafts (such as Tunisian crochet) instead of knitting needles that are all used in basic knitting.  There are a couple of different kinds of crochet hooks that come to mind: double hooked and a Tunisian crochet hook.  I put this in the section for "Other Notes" as opposed to either pros or cons, because it is it is something that may matter more to some people than others.  It is also something that is not necessary to know when beginning since it does not come into play until one becomes more advanced.