Why Knitting Blankets > Quilting

I'm not expecting this little essay to get anything like the response to my Ianto essay over on torch_wood (the reason I'm not answering comments yet is that the discussion is still raging quite nicely without me), but I did have a few epiphanies about knitting vs. quilting - particularly since I realized last night that right now I have all the supplies and intent to make an equal number of quilts and knitted blankets at the moment.

They're both ancient methods of producing warm covers. In the right hands, both can be jaw-droppingly beautiful art forms. Both can be reduced to small, portable pieces to be worked on at random moments.

And yet...

1) You can knit a quilt pattern - MUCH of my current interest in knitting was spiked by Mason Dixon Knitting with its instructions for knitting log cabin, courthouse steps, and flying geese blankets - but it's almost impossible to quilt a knitting pattern.

2) The prep work involved before starting a quilt is washing the fabric, ironing the fabric, and cutting the fabric. The prep work involved before starting to knit is shoving the yarn and needles into your bag.

3) I have yet to draw blood with a knitting needle. Stabbing yourself while quilting is so common that you can find handy hints on how to cover bloodstains on your quilt. (Embroidered ladybugs are popular. I'm not making this up.)

4) If you seriously hose up quilting, you have to throw away that block. In knitting, you just undo it and start over.

5) If you decide, part of the way through that you don't love the project,* in quilting you have to either chuck what you have or find a new project that uses that size and shape of block. In knitting, you unravel what you've got and it and the unknitted yarn goes back to pure potential.


*A fair portion of this introspection was brought on by the epiphany "I don't want to work on the mitered block alpaca blanket... oh, look, that yarn will all work beautifully in this pattern, and if I change the block size, I don't even need to unknit what I've already done."


Now I just have to wait for my arm to finish healing. I picked up the edge of the Doctor Who scarf and knit one row last night, but my tendons let me know that that was quite enough. At least they don't hurt this morning.

link rec

If you're not familiar with Doctor Who, there is a really thorough primer on crack_van by euryale000. (If you're an old hand at the Whoniverse, read it anyway, because it's hilarious.)

Linked here for your amusement and so that I can find the bugger later.