Friday, June 23, 2006

Knit vs. Crochet


I am a knitter. I will always be a knitter. When I picked up those needles for the first time the second time in my life (I learned when I was a kid, but it didn't stick with me), I was hooked. I am not, however, opposed to crochet. I used to crochet a lot, but I never learned how to read patterns or increase properly. I'm surprised to find out that there are people out there who don't like crocheters. I was reading an article http://www.crochetme.com/blog/tnna-the-midwest-new-york-a-triptych, and discovered that LYS will some times refuse to sell yarn to people who do crochet. That is a completely ludacris practice and a kind of odd. Let me compare this practice to something else. It kind of reminds me of the Dr. Seuss book The Sneetches, "They only could play if their bellies had stars, and the Plain-bellied Sneetches had none upon thars." It's like saying, " You eat peanutbutter....um, I can't talk to you." WEIRD! What the hell are people thinking? I'm not sure I want to know. Is there some pre-conceived notion about crocheters that I'm missing? (Maybe they think all crocheters look like this lady and crochet things like what she's created)
Does age play a factor in this? Are the shop owners or clerks above a certain age? Are they senile????? That's a huge generalization, but it doesn't really make any sense. I'm going to continue to knit, but I will be expanding my crochet horizons. Check out the granny squares you can make! I love to craft with my hands so why limit what I can do, to just one craft? Several months ago, myself and a lot of the ladies I work with, formed a craft group of sorts. We try to meet once a week and we have a combination of crocheters and knitters. There's no animosity. We knit and crochet in harmony. We encourage growth in our crafts. If someone doesn't know how to do something we try to teach each other. We do other crafts when the mood strikes us so we don't limit ourselves to yarn, hooks, and needles. These mediums of expression are no longer for the weak-hearted. These crafts aren't limited to any one kind of people from any specific background.
We can all do it and do it together. I'm just saying keep your mind open to other kinds of people. I'm always floored to discover that there are all kinds of prejudices out there. I have some myself that I don't know exist until I come across that kind of person. It's stupid and ignorant. Let the crocheters into the club! It's okay!

So, as a side note....this is my first post in a long time. I'm going to try and make it more knitting/craft related. I do crafts often and I knit often. Or I at least try to do them often. My dogs tend to prevent that.
This is why I'm not able to sit on the couch, because they play on top of it.