I received a warm and humbling message from a fellow Ravelry-ite this morning. Charles is a knitter, but erstwhile crocheter, who gave up hooking when it became apparent to him that doilies just were not his “thing” and nothing else crocheted seemed appealing. Since hearing my February 22 interview with Marly, and seeing my Gatsby sweater, he has changed his mind. In his words:
“For the most part, non textile people don’t recognize texture, and fine details like post stitches,etc, all they see is a sweater. The only thing they may remember/know about crochet is the doily/afgan “look” or general surface structure in a very vague way and so what they see doesn’t concur with what they remember about crochet.
What you’ve done is create a whole new look to sweaters done by crochet. You’ve redefined what the overall textural look is, upclose and from a distance. It doesn’t look like the 70s stuff, it doesn’t even look like the crochet that’s on the runways these days. There is no point of reference because you’re breaking new ground, and that’s exciting. I think the ‘looks like knitting’ reference is people saying.. I don’t recognize this…it’s not crochet, it’s not knitting…texturally, it looks more like knitting than it does the crochet that I know/remember. So if most people are saying it with a neutral tone…it’s a compliment. Now if there is a knitter who says it…the underlying intent of the comment could be construed as and insult, but that’s just because of the pre-existing undercurrent of disdain that some knitters have for crochet. I can see why you reserve the right to determine if the comment is a complement or a dig, though because so many knitters have been so down on crochet.
Now, I love crochet, I even love afgans and doilies.”
This is very exciting. I thank Charles for his kind words and do hope that he again picks up the hook. Maybe I’ll invite him to Men Who Crochet. 🙂
Crackers in Bed 
What nice words! I’m so pleased for you.
Dude, that is so cool! Charles is a great guy and a wonderful podcaster. How AWESOME to have him make such an outstanding comment!! To know that you are pushing a long time knitter to pick up the hook…YOU ROCK!!!
xoxox
Marly
Just one thing, I’m a knitter (learning to crochet) and if I look @ a crocheted sweater and say it looks like knitting, that is high praise from me. Because, as Charles mentioned, many knitters feel that crochet is inferior to knitting. My theory is, we are still recovering from the bullet proof crocheted sweater our granny stuffed us into when we were young, with a neck hole so small it nearly tore our ears off when she squished us in or out of it, and such a hideous stop sign red color that even normally polite people stopped and shaded their eyes so they could point and stare…
So if a knitter elevates a crocheted sweater from it’s humble origins by comparing it to a knit item…lol, they are saying “OMG, that looks good enought to be knit! Granny would be rolling in her grave!”