A short post. We have this channel here in St. Louis that is called Create-TV. It is a digital channel that is served up by our local PBS affiliate, and they have shows about cooking, travelling, painting, crafts, home improvement, and then for some reason, a show about knitting and crocheting. And it is seriously the most impossible show to understand I’ve ever seen.
The basic gist of the show is that this lady stands around where other people take yarn, wiggle their hands, and make a sweater happen. But any attempt to understand this process in any greater deal just makes my brain hurt. Literally. It is the same feeling that I got back in high school trying to understand Calculus.
I watch, and I really (and this is pretty embarrassing) try to understand what is happening. But it just doesn’t make any sense. And the host lady makes absolutely no attempt to explain any of the concepts that these yarn wizards are employing. They definitely assume a much higher level of knitting knowledge than I process. I have no clue what a “single crochet” is, so I’m lost basically from step one. And then they go so fast. Literally faster than the eye can follow, which makes for some really especially awful television.
So basically what PBS is doing is putting on 30 minutes of insanely complicated, completely unwatchable television. And what do I do? I watch it. Why? Well, it is on right after Katie Brown Workshop, which is my absolute favorite Create-TV show (even though the stuff she does is completely insane. I am drawn to it for some unknown reason) and seriously, what else are you going to do on a Sunday night.
Also, I feel I should make it clear that I don’t really have much desire to learn anything about knitting. I have like 50,000 other skills that I would like to acquire first. So really my complaints about this show don’t matter much, since I’m clearly not the target audience. But it does drive me insane at some deep level that someone out there is creating a TV show that is so completely unwatchable.
6 Comments
Maybe this will help. The knit stitch makes a V shape, the purl stitch make a bump. They are exactly the opposite of each other, so the wrong side of a knit stitch looks like a purl, and vice versa. To decrease stitches, you knit or purl two stitches together. To increase stitches, you add an extra stitch in between two existing stitches. That’s all there is to it, the rest is just variations on that.
Reply
If you want to learn to knit or crochet, I can help teach you. Crocheting is easier than knitting, in my opinion. But neither is hard once you know the basics. There are also some good video on the internet teaching the basics.
Reply
Baba tried teaching me how to crochet once. It was the most complicated thing I have EVER tried doing.
Reply
My Grandpa Tommy in Salem taught me to knit, and he used a different method than anyone else, but it is quicer and easier – except that I am totally incapable of teaching it to someone else. I dont remember learning to crochet, but I did. I LOVE doing both and LOVE that show.
Reply
I need to watch this show. Favorite phrase: “wiggle their hands and make a sweater happen.”
Reply
My Grandpa Tommy in Salem taught me to knit, and he used a different method than anyone else, but it is quicer and easier – except that I am totally incapable of teaching it to someone else. I dont remember learning to crochet, but I did. I LOVE doing both and LOVE that show.
Reply