Bob NystromSomehow I found myself writing a blog post about why nerds should try knitting: https://journal.stuffwithstuff.com/2025/05/30/consider-knitting/
Eli the BeardedOne of the things that has fascinated me about knitting patterns is how much they read like assembly language.
Joey Rees-Hill@elithebearded Yes! As a programmer and sometimes-knitter, I love to execute the assembly
@elithebearded Totally. The inputs and outputs are implicit. It's sort of all verb and no noun, kind of like a stack-based language.
ratfactor@munificent Heck yeah! Every nerd should try knitting, crochet, needle felting (pictured), woodworking, drawing, painting, etc. *Something* will surely click.
Boyd Stephen Smith Jr.@munificent Should I knit or crochet?
@BoydStephenSmithJr Good question! If you like the smooth neat texture of the left image and want to make apparel like hats, scarves, and sweaters, then knitting. If you like the chunky bumpy texture of the right image and want to make irregular shapes like amigurumi and funny little accessories, then crochet. Or try both and see which fits your hand/brain better.
@munificent @BoydStephenSmithJr
Put another way: Knitting makes surfaces, mostly flat. Crochet can do that, too, but is better for 3-D shapes. I've got an art piece that is an eyeball in an eye socket (and the eye can pop out). It's crochet and would be really hard to do knitted. To me crochet is more interesting but perhaps less practical.
ink and yarn@BoydStephenSmithJr @munificent Why not both? :)
More seriously, it partly depends on what you want to make.
DougMerritt (log😅 = 💧log😄)@munificent
...As for myself, I'm sympathetic to the issue because I learned to crochet decades ago (I very briefly tried knitting but didn't really get the process down).
But I didn't really think much about it, other than the "female coded" issues you mentioned, whereas you have made some really insightful observations about this.
Good article. Thanks.
Peter@munificent
::hat tip::
Well written, and curiously timely for me personally.
I'd be remiss if I didn't reach out to say, "Well done".
🇺🇦 Maksim Lin 💙@munificent mate you don't need to convince me! I unfortunately haven't done it since I was young, but I was lucky enough to go to a school that thought girls *and* boys needed to learn to knit & I remember loving spending hours on a super long Tom Baker (4th dr who) style scarf!
The click, click of the needles is so satisfying I remember it to this day.
The click, click of the needles is so satisfying I remember it to this day.