Woolly Wednesday: Do You Knit or Crochet Loosely or with Tight Stitches?

Dear users, dear authors,
do you knit or crochet loosely, or do you prefer tighter stitches?
Tell me about it.

Hi,

I crochet very tightly. So tightly that sometimes the yarn squeaks or I can’t
get my hook into the stitch anymore.
That’s why I can’t crochet with hooks smaller than a size 3.

Best regards, Heike

I also tend to crochet more tightly because I think the stitch definition is easier to see that way. When crocheting loosely, the stitches look like they spread apart a bit. And when the piece is washed, the stitches spread apart even more—and then I don’t like it.

That’s exactly why I always recommend making a gauge swatch. Just because some yarns work up well with a certain hook size doesn’t mean that size will be ideal in the end.

If my crochet hook squeaked while I was crocheting, that wouldn’t be for me. If I crocheted that tightly, I’d get neck pain from the muscle tension. I suppose everyone has their own preferences in this regard.

I tend to crochet and knit tightly. Things used to squeak for me too, and I even got tendonitis once. But I’m working on it, and I’ve already gotten better. At least it doesn’t squeak anymore.

It depends on what I’m crocheting.

At first, I only made amigurumi, which you crochet pretty tightly.

When I started making shawls and things like that, I really had trouble sometimes because I was crocheting so tightly.

But now I can do both :) 

I tend to knit and crochet loosely.

I knit on the loose side, which makes it less tiring.
With crocheting, it’s a bit different—that tends to turn out relatively tight.
But nothing has squeaked for me yet.
I always recommend doing a gauge swatch—I speak from experience. It’s quicker than having to unravel later. ;-)

I tend to knit loosely, except for socks—I always need a larger needle size for those, otherwise they turn out too tight. When crocheting, I’m pretty good at adjusting to whatever’s needed. For amigurumi, I wrap the yarn around my finger twice to make it tighter; for stitches that need to be looser, I only wrap it once. 

I also crochet on the loose side

I used to knit very tightly, but now I knit somewhere between medium and loose—it’s not as tiring on the hands.