Wire knit or wire crochet?

Two of the favorite techniques I use in my work are wire knit and wire crochet. People often ask me why I have different names for them because they know that I use a crochet hook for both techniques. There's an old post here where I started to explain the difference, but then I thought it might be interesting for you to if I dig a little deeper. First of all let me say that there's no official term that everyone uses. What I call wire knit, might be called wire crochet by others, or invisible spool knitting. I took some pictures of basic samples for you to hopefully clear the confusion up a bit. Even though it might be hard to believe ... ALL of these samples started out with eight chain stitches and ALL of them were worked on with the same size crochet hook – and the same fingers. So what exactly is it that makes them look so differently from each other? Let's start with the flat piece. The first difference you might notice is what I like to call "open stitches". They make a piece much easier to unravel, that can be a good thing ... and it can be very bad if a cat tries to run off with your wire (which is not something I ever encourage). As you can see, the wire knit sample has all open stitches while the wire crochet only has one open stitch at the end. Again, open stitches can be good if you found a mistake you want to fix, but more often it is not something you want. This goes for all shapes of wire knit or crochet, you will see that in the next pictures. Of course it is nothing to get to see in a finished piece, so that fact interesting but no help in identifying a technique. The other thing you can see is that the wire knit sample has a much more open, airy structure. Compared to it the other sample is tighter and a bit smaller, too. Why is that? In wire knit, you put your hook through a stitch, grab the wire, and make a loop. That's it. You move on to the next stitch, grab the wire, make a loop, to the next, and so on. In wire crochet, however, you put your hook through the stitch with the previously made stitch still on your hook and grab the wire. Now you have two loops and you grab the wire once more with your hook and pull it through both of them. So there is more wire in crochet pieces which makes them less slinky and delicate looking than knit pieces. They also can't be pulled as easily as knit pieces which again can be both an advantage and a disadvantage. On the other hand, it makes them sturdier and the stitch pattern is perhaps more interesting.

Next I will show you two rope or tube samples. Wire ropes offer endless possibilities and I love to play around with them to make new designs. Again, you can see how much more open the wire knit sample looks. I deliberately took the pictures on a reflective surface to point that out even more. It makes this technique perfect for filling beads into the rope. The beads are not hidden as much as in a crochet rop where we know more wire is involved. Also the beads help to maintain the shape of the knit rope because they don't just look delicate, they really are. A crochet rope withstands pressure from outside a lot better. I wouldn't recommend wire knit ropes around children, for example, or you might end up with a flattened rope, which isn't that easy to re-shape if possible at all, or you suddenly have a slimmer but much longer necklace which something that can't be changed back at all.

Last but not least I'll share the disk with you which is often the base for making bezels for rocks, beads, or cabochons. Thanks to being so flexible, a wire knit disk can be shaped beautifully around a stone, even the free form ones. I have also used it for rings, earrings, and pendants, with or without beads. The crochet disk is sturdier and therefore harder to use on irregularly shaped stones, but it works great for rounds or ovals. I have also used it as a focal base for necklaces or earrings. Of course I know I have only scratched the surface with this, but I hope it helps a bit for the start.