Knitting and crochet

Well, Franklin Habit and I agree about  something*

(*there are likely other things we would agree about but I don't know his work all that well, to make that claim).

Anyway, the essay is titled "Play Nice" and it  addresses the knitting/crochet divide, which, as I've said, is something I never "got." I never knew there was a divide until I was an adult and started reading about knitting and crochet on the internet. My mother does both knitting and crochet, using one skill for some things (crochet for doilies, and for some baby clothes, and for making good thick floormats to put down on tiled floors) and knitting for others (sweaters, mittens, hats). My grandmother (my maternal grandmother) did both; my mother said what she really loved doing and did for relaxation was filet crochet - if there was a divide for her, it was that knitting was a "necessity" and crochet was what you did for self-expression.

I learned to crochet before I learned to knit. I'm still not extremely expert with thread crochet (though I am better now than I once was). I'm still not crazy about using very soft laceweight yarn with a fine crochet hook. (I have a Midsummer Night's Dream shawl somewhere I barely started and gave up on....I think I'd really rather knit the extremely fine-gauge stuff).

As I said before, both are useful. (And having a crochet hook handy is a very good thing while knitting. I've used them to grab dropped stitches and also to do stuff like drop down and correct mis-crossed cables.)

But still, I wonder: why the divide? Do other crafts have this? One of the people posting on the Ravelry thread posited that maybe it was related to earlier prejudices - she claimed that some years back, knitting was more commonly done by the Brits, and crochet, especially Clones lace, was done by the Irish. And that there was a long history of animosity between those two groups (I've seen it, even from people who just had marginal heritage from one or the other, and again, in those cases, it seemed a bit out of proportion to me). She also suggested that crochet, at least in the Americas, was more common as a "warm climate" craft, and that you didn't have to be able to read to do it (Though I question that; I think a person could probably knit just as well if they were illiterate....they'd maybe have to make up their own patterns or follow charts, rather than using patterns....but then again, how long have there BEEN published knitting patterns? Only just over 100 years, I think). So she suggested that "less-refined" or perhaps farm/working-class African-American women might be more likely to be crocheters than knitters, and THAT might be the source of some of the prejudice.

Of course, that's purely speculation, and I think that especially the British/Irish thing....the contempt each group had for the other was longer and bigger than the period of time that people have been crocheting (I've read that crocheting was pretty much unknown in Europe before the 19th century. I don't know how nalbinding, an older craft that looks similar to me, fits in). I've also read that crocheting was developed as a "poor people's craft" that could be done by women in workhouses and such, as a way to earn a little money. And there's an urban legend that the term "hooker" (for a woman of easy virtue) comes from the fact that some of these women allegedly supplemented their income by making "knockoff" lace (knockoff of the costlier forms of lace) by crocheting it. Though I think that one really IS an urban legend and is not true.


But I suppose there are myriad reasons, some of them buried, perhaps many of them passed on by older generations, for one group of crafters to be hostile to another. I guess I was lucky in that I came from a family where both (and other crafts, as well: my mother does sewing and quilting and embroidery and for a while she did both needlepoint and crewelwork. I think the one needlecraft she never learned, and which her mother never knew, was tatting. And I admit, I kind of want to learn tatting some time). In a way, it's sociologically interesting to consider: how did this apparent prejudice, which seems to have no rational basis, get started? On the other hand, it's kind of sad to think of people who say things like "I won't even TOUCH a crochet hook." (To me, that seems like the people who go to extreme lengths to ensure the "purity" of their diet, stuff like that: it seems to me a way to declare "I consider myself better than you" without saying it outright. I'm fine with people saying, "I tried crochet and it hurt my wrists so I gave it up" or "I learned to knit but I really like crochet better" or even "I gave it a try but couldn't get the hang of it so I do the other craft," but to act as if the tools of the other craft are UNCLEAN! seems a little goofy to me)

But as I've said before, it seems so strange to me: life seems hard enough as it is, and there seem to be enough people opposed to us for silly reasons without us coming up with silly reasons of our own to oppose people.