A question to ponder: Which is more difficult--knitting or crocheting?

I switch back and forth between the two, and I've done both for so long, I've never given it much thought. I do know, however, I can't do both at the same time--each requires a different mindset.

Knitting, with a long and honored tradition, is really pretty easy. There are really only 5 things you can do with 2 sticks and a piece of yarn: knit, purl, knit or purl multiple stitches together, slip a stitch from one stick to the other, and wrap the yarn around the stick. All knitting "stitches" and patterns are composed of these 5 things. Add to this the "grid concept of knitting" (the idea that each stitch equals 1 box on a grid), and you reduce the most difficult knitting pattern to a simple structure. Knitting could be considered the fiber form of Legos.

Crochet, on the other hand, seems to be more complex. It also uses a lot more fiber, which may be the reason it didn't come about before the price of spun fibers started to drop in the Industrial Revolution. in crochet, you are working with just 1 stick, but you use that stick to make loops, and then manipulate the loops in lots of different ways, working them off the hook 1 or 2 at a time. Add to this the ability to work into the front or back of the fabric already created, and you have something that is pretty sophisticated. A perfect medium for Victorian "ladies" (as opposed to "women") who wanted to show off their needlework skills in a form of conspicuous consumption.

Consider the Navajo stitch, used in the Fibonacci afghan: after chaining the length you need for the finished piece, you work 4 rows of single crochet (with 1 loop already on the hook, go through the back loop of the top of the chain, pull back making a loop, yarn over, pull through both loops so you have a single loop on the hook. Repeat in the top of the next chain), you begin your 5th row with 4 single crochets, then a double crochet--a single crochet with an extra yarn over before the first through--into the front loop of the top of single crochet 2-3 rows below. Repeat the entire sequence until you get to the end, then break off the yarn, go back to the beginning, and repeat, but move the entire pattern over 1 stitch. No wonder crocheters spend so much time frogging (the needlework term for ripping and reworking to fix a mistake)--mistakes frequently don't show up until you've worked to the same point in the next row, and then it's rip, rip, rip back to the mistake and beginning the work again. It's enough to drive a saint to drink!

OK, enough on knitting v. crochet for today. I've got more important things to do.

Firstly, I had a chance to listen to Syne Mitchell's podcast from last year's Black Sheep Gathering in Eugene, Oregon. She had a wonderful interview with Russ of Robin & Russ, the late and much lamented weaver's store in McMinnville, OR, and she managed to make Black Sheep sound like so much fun I actually pulled out the Reeves and got spinning again. Whatever it is, it's wool, and a complete mystery, as I've managed to lose the information on it. It might be Suffolk, or it might be Falklands, or it might be Leicester. However, it does spin up nicely, so I'll have to spin up a bunch and see what I can make.

Next, a friend offered me a small stash of silk blend roving. For some reason, she doesn't like how it spins up (she's a drop spindle enthusiast), so she thinks I'll have better luck spinning it on my wheel. She also asked if I could knit her a biggin/coif. OK, maybe this is why I've suddenly started spinning again--to make her handknitted coif out of handspun yarn. We'll have to see.

Enough questions and thinking for today--I'm off to act like a spider and spin.