Crochet vs. Knit

I have told you all before that I am a crochet gal not a knit gal. I can and have knitted but it just doesn't hold my interest the way crocheting does. It has been so long since I have even tried to knit something it would be a very huge learning curve to even attempt the mood to want to knit.*

Right now I am looking at this glorious shawl that would be so very wonderful to wrap myself in during those late fall evenings when we still find it too warm to even think about lighting a fire but something needs to be done to ward off the chill.

Isn't this just devine? Don't you want one? I do. The question is do I want it enough to actually try to knit it? Or do I want to search out something in a chrochet pattern to whip out while we watch tv in the evenings?

The pattern is a free pattern over at The Wooly West.

When I look at this shawl I think old fashioned. This is the shawl that any pioneer woman would throw around her shoulders to walk to church. Or pull around herself while she stood outside on a cool fall evening and looked at the stars while wearing a wonderfully full, long sleeved white night gown.

Romance. That's the word I'm looking for. This shawl has the look of old fashion romance when days where simplier (even when the work was harder) and life's pleasures came in simple forms.

Since starting this post I have taken a break from it. I have searched out the internet for some of the best crochet patterns available for shawls. Shawls. Not stoles. Not one long skinny crocheted rectangle. A real honest to goodness shawl and NOTHING along the lines of what Caroline Ingles wore in Little House on the Prairie tv series. You cannot stay warm wrapped in something with a thousand holes it in!

This is what I have found so far.

Pretty close but not quite. The pattern is a freebie. Yes, I saved it, too. Just in case I go back to find it and it isn't there any longer. Looking at the two patterns I am still attracted to the knit the most.

I also found this pattern. It would be a very big project but one that would last through a fairly large chunk of winter evenings. I would finish it just in time to put it away and wear the following winter. But I do like this one alot. It would a fun wrap to through over jeans, a turtle with sweater and a very cool pair of boots.

Now I have to decide on the yarn and the color. I think camel would be lovely or maybe a deep rich tobacco brown. What color would you choose? I am not interested in black but a charcoal grey would be lovely.

What kind of yarn? Wool? Cotton? I am leaning toward cotton.

So many decisions for a simple winter craft project.

While I have been trying to decide on color, type of yarn and searching out the best price for supplies I have made a discovery. You know, there are some pretty bad crochet patterns out there. I applaud other people who make and wear their own things but seriously some of this stuff is a waste of time and good yarn. Hidious creations lie behind many links throughout the internet.

Do you knit or crochet? Are you currently wrapped up in a project? Do you have a future project you are excited about starting? If not how do you see yourself spending those cold winter nights?

I'll be sitting by the fire sipping a warm drink, wrapped in a long flannel gown with slippers on my feet and hopefully this crochet project in my hands.

*Honestly, I don't see the attraction that seems to draw so many people to world of knitting. Somewhere along the way it seems to me that crochet has become the poor man's hobby and knitting is the elite of yarn craft these days.

For anyone who might be interested here is the pattern for that poncho Martha Stewart wore upon leaving prison.