I’m a surprised, disappointed and little put-off by the opinions of Rita Weiss. She is clearly biased towards crochetting over knitting and has no concrete idea of the actual demographic of yarn crafters today.

Ms Weiss wildly generalizes that Knitters are all very concerned about getting every stitch perfect and Crochetters are not, because they give most all their projects away and are their for great for doing charity work with. For the record, my mother crochets detailed lace doilies (for herself) & always rips back for the tiniest mistakes even if it’s 20 rounds deep. I am a knitter and I have participated in several knit based charities and I have knit plenty of gifts for other people. There are all kinds of people who knit and crochet and it is wrong to generalize about their motives & habits simply based on which is their chosen craft.

Rita Weiss is misinformed when she states that one can’t insert an extra stitch as easily with knitting as with crochetting. It is just as easy to insert an extra stitch where needed with knit as with crochet. Knitting has yarn overs too. Has she never heard of a M1? Lifted bar increase?

Rita Weiss also is of the antiquated opinion that kids must be taught to crochet or knit before the age of 11, because teens are only capable of being interested in 1 thing (boys, if you are a girl; and sports of you are a boy) and lose all interest in crafting again until they are pregnant (presumably boys never knit or crochet again??) and need to knit for baby (what, there’s no other reason to craft??). Then they put it aside again until they are grandmothers and have plenty of time and money (ha!). How ignorant and narrow minded! I am neither a child, pregnant, nor post menopausal and I have always been interested in crafting, even when I was a boy crazy teen. These are exactly the kinds of knitting and crocheting stereotypes I thought the yarn crafting community today was trying to overcome.

Hopefully Rita Weiss will see a more accurate sample of the crafting demographic on WWKIP day.

Woops… my typos! I didn’t write my comment out in Word first to properly edit, which might also explain the length!

I love this episode. I especially like the ideas about having a get together with friends who knit and crochet. I am hosting a contest where participants must crochet an originally granny square afghan with different stitches and they don’t have to be original granny squares either, as long as they are squares. The person who has a very unique stitch, color and they must name there afghan will win some baked goodies. I actually brain storm from your project the Tree of Life knit along. I liked the idea that people can actually work on a project together and actually finish it. You know how some of us knitter’s and crocheters are, we tend to want to work on another project, before our first one is finished. Well I know I always do that, I’m trying to do better with that. I really love all your podcasts, because it really inspires me to do more and do better by challenging myself to step it up. By the way I respect all crocheters and knitters, I would like to learn how to knit one day as I am a crocheter. I’m so sorry about the comments that Rita Weiss made. I believe we are all crafters, creators in the same world, and there is no need for division between one because they don’t do this and the other does something else. We can all come together and learn from one another. WWKIP is a perfect event to do that. We crafters, what ever gift you have as a crafter, has an important thing in common, we create love and care in what we do, and we love what we create. Where ever we are in the world crafting, crocheting, knitting, scrapbooking, etc., and some of us may never meet, some will-we create that love for one another in the spirit of loving what we do and passing it on. That is always our connection. God bless you Lion Brand for inspiring me to make more memories. To all yarn crafters, keep up the good work and God bless you for living an inspiration life to create through many things, and of course, but also through crafting. Oh, and by the way, my grandmother and my sister taught me how to crochet and they never “left me alone”. I’m glad they kept checking to see if I got my stitch right, or if I’m reading the instructions properly. Although I may have become intrested in boys, I still never gave up my crocheting. Actually it’s one of the things that kept me grounded and focus. We can’t give up on our children, they need something to keep them grounded and focus so that they won’t get off track with boy’s. If we leave them alone and not pass on what we know who will? Pass on a gift, and you have passed on great wisdom.

Rita sounds a little old fashioned…but that’s ok.

I don’t consider myself a crocheter because I cannot crochet flat, I can only crochet critters.

I love to knit everywhere. I work at a clinic and I often knit there, and it’s a wonderful way to have people open up about their lives. It’s interesting.

I recently started riding a scooter to work and had to reduce the stuff I can carry. I still make sure I carry some yarn with me stashed under the seat!

We fibremasters are an opinionated lot (that would account for the gazillion yarn/hook/needle/pattern types to which we lovingly have access)! And I would guess there are many (who will likely not comment) who fit Ms. Weiss’ timeline quite well. It would seem there are currently enough of us practicing our various interpretations of fibre work to fuel the LYS/web-based fibre economy…and that means we continue to have choices.

I found it a bit surprising that, early in the podcast, Liz told Zontee to stop knitting–this in the midst of talking about connecting with/to others through knitting/crochet/etc. An odd place for an obstacle.