What’s more popular? Knitting or Crochet?
I guess I’ve always assumed Knitting was more popular than Crochet, because I’m so immersed in knitting culture! But I’m totally wrong!
According to a 2017 survey by the Craft Yarn Council, more than twice as many people responded that they prefer crochet to knitting. 51% of respondents prefer to crochet, 20% love both skills and 29% prefer to knit. So, those of us who knit are in the slight minority! 71% enjoy crochet, and only 49% enjoy knitting.
I’ve created an infographic to summarize what I learned from the CYC study. You can find it at the end of this post.
So, can this data be trusted? It’s already 5 years old, and a lot has changed since 2017. The Covid-19 pandemic has shifted how many of us live in the world, and how we move within social circles. This means that many at-home hobbies had a huge boon in 2020-now. I wasn’t able to find a more recent survey. So, I took to Ravelry, the most popular pattern website in the world. What I found is that there are almost 50% more knitting patterns than crochet patterns posted currently on Ravelry (Feb 21, 2022). But is Ravelry just known as a more knitting-friendly site? I analyzed just new knitting patterns posted between 2020 & 2022. Of these, it was very close to a tie, with only 5% more knitting patterns than crochet patterns published during the pandemic. This data makes a lot more sense, when viewing it in connection with the CYC study.
