I’ve been thinking an awful lot lately about what a knitting - or crochet - pattern is. What value it contains. How much work goes into one. What they mean to those of us who design and write them and what they mean to those of us who make from them.

I’m still getting all the words together but this much I do have:

Knit and crochet design is textile engineering; where 3-dimensional artwork is designed and created from a few basic stitches.

That knitting and crochet patterns are complex technical documents; where that yarn structure is translated into a unique code that takes skill to interpret and execute with such remarkable precision and individuality.

And that anyone downplaying our skills or suggesting that knit and crochet are 'just granny hobbies' is an elitist ageist misogynist.

Our - your - work is beautiful and functional, our skills valid; we shouldn't let anyone tell us otherwise.


The image is a close up crown detail of my Elsica Hat. It has the words “yarn + engineering + coding = knitting” typed across it.

Posted
AuthorWoolly Wormhead