If you are interested in knitting and crochet you will find an enormous wealth of patterns and projects to try. I have done both since I was quite young and I still enjoy them. If you have never tried either, a little guidance helps.
Why learn both
Most people learn one and stay there, which is a shame, because they do genuinely different things.
Knitting makes better fabric – thinner, more elastic, better drape. It is the right choice for garments that need to fit, for socks, and for fine lace.
Crochet makes better forms. It builds outward in any direction from any point, which makes three-dimensional and freeform work far easier. Toys, bags, blankets, edgings and anything sculptural.
Knowing both means choosing the right tool rather than forcing one to do the other’s job.
Which to learn first
Crochet is generally easier to start.
Only one stitch is ever live, so a dropped stitch does not run down the fabric. You can put the work down mid-row and pick it up later with nothing lost. Both of those matter a great deal when you are learning.
But learn whichever makes the thing you actually want to make. That is the only criterion that matters.
What they share
More than people expect.
Gauge works the same way in both. Yarn weight means the same thing. Blocking does the same job. Reading a pattern, counting stitches and choosing fibre for a purpose all transfer directly.
If you know one, you are perhaps a third of the way into the other already.
Starting either
Smooth, light-coloured, worsted weight yarn. Bamboo needles around 5mm, or a 5.00mm hook.
Something flat where fit does not matter – a dishcloth or a scarf. Finish it however it looks, and start another.
The pleasure of it
What keeps people at both crafts for decades is not the finished objects, though those are welcome.
It is the rhythm. Once the movements are learned the hands work without supervision and the mind is free. It is the closest thing many people have to a meditative practice, arrived at without intending one.
And there is the small transformation: string goes in, fabric comes out, made entirely by hand. That does not get less satisfying with repetition.
