A few years back I stopped creating crochet content.
My reasons were primarily financial. The crochet classes and videos that I produced didn’t perform nearly as well as the knitting ones.
But during the pandemic crochet had a huge surge in popularity.
These days search traffic for crochet in the US has overtaken knitting.
Now there are some who believe there is a rivalry between knitters and crocheters.
There have been stories of yarn stores not offering much support for crochet in the form of products or patterns.
In my experience those are the exception and not the norm.
Hopefully any teasing between the two crafts comes from a friendly place.
I personally have been an avid crocheter for over a decade and have multiple crochet projects in the works.
The ability to crochet is an incredibly useful skill that every knitter should have in their toolbox.
Here are a few reasons why:
Borders
While I prefer to crochet blankets in general, adding a border to a knitted blanket or other project is far easier than knitting one. Not only is it quicker, but you can create shapes that are much harder to do in knitting.
Seaming
Not a fan of seaming? Try a crocheted seam.
It’s stronger than most sewn seams and it’s quick and easy to do. The seam is a little more bulky and pronounced, but it can be incorporated as its own design element.
Casting On
The crochet cast on creates one of the nicest looking edges on your knits. It also perfectly matches a traditional knit bind off. And the crochet provisional cast on is my favorite way to create a provisional edge.
Granny Squares
There may be no better *mindless* craft than making granny squares. Not only are there hundreds of designs to play with, you can make them over and over again and eventually you have a blanket (or a myriad of other projects).
Plus there’s not really anything like it within knitting.
Fixing Mistakes
We’ve all dropped a stitch before. Picking up a stitch the right way can be a pain. While this isn’t so much a crochet skill, it is much easier to do with a crochet hook.
Conclusion
While knitting and crochet are quite different they also compliment each other well.