Recently, I had my physical annual everything, which included imaging. Determined to be entertained with something other than my smartphone, I took my current project, which is free-form crochet, with me for my screening. The technician was interested that I crocheted and said she had learned a little but wasn’t confident she could do it again. She also said that she had two friends teach her, and each friend taught her how to do the same thing differently. I laughed and said “Welcome to the world of crocheting!”
I have noticed that the more one researches different styles of knitting and crocheting online, the more puzzling it can become. The ancient craft of knitting has definitely grown and changed from it’s humble beginnings over the ages. It’s like telling secrets; it’s whispered into the ear of one person, and by the time it inevitably makes it way back to the originator, it may have been changed so much that it’s not even recognized as the same information! In the sharing process, hearing may not be as keen as it once was, or there are distractions for both the speaker and the listener, and many other reasons, so something as simple as one word being skewed or omitted will change the whole meaning of the original message. I had my own shocker when my cousin, after viewing my crochet tutorials, informed me that I was holding my hook incorrectly. *sigh* My advice? Find someone with a wide and varied selection of tutorials, whose style you like, and stick with them. If, on the other hand, you’ve been doing something forever that works for you and your end product looks how it should, keep doing it.
It would seem that as mass communication devices become more prevalent in our world, eventually, there may be some standardization, but in the meantime, vive le difference!
Nittin' Ninja 