Knitting, Table Knitting, Tunisian Crochet, Crochet...

None of These Things is Not Like the Others

The current "big thing" in knitting and home decor is made with yarns that can be as wide around as a man's thumb (or larger yet). While the 1" diameter "US size 50" knitting needles have been surpassed by newer, even larger ones, the current fad is to "knit" a scarf or blanket without the use of knitting needles at all.

Mega Yarn for Table Knitting

Size 50 straight needles; Size 70 circular needle

Unlike its predecessor trend of arm knitting*, table knitting starts with a foundation chain laid flat on a table. Loops are drawn up through each chain stitch to form the first row of knitting. From there, one works back and draws the yarn up through the previous row of loops to form the next row of oversized stockinette stitch. The table keeps the stitches from tearing out as one knits row after successive row before binding off the final project.

Foundation Chain for Table Knitting

First Row, Table Knitting (bottom)

Let me note that traditional needle knitting has a number of different ways of "casting" one's initial stitches onto the needle. The most common method is sometimes called "long tail", the "Italian" cast-on is a variation of the long tail cast-on. In a "knitted cast-on" (KCO), one knits the original stitch, then knits into that stitch and moves it onto the needle to create a second stitch, and so on until the pattern number of stitches has been reached. Unlike the long-tail and its variations, if you removed the knitting needle from a knitted cast-on, you would find something that looks exactly like the foundation chain of crochet. Or the initial chain of table knitting.

Foundations (top to bottom): Crochet, Tunisian Crochet, KCO (needle removed), Table Knitting

The first row of table knitting draws up a loop of yarn through each stitch of the foundation chain.

If this were done on knitting needles, the work would look exactly like the first row of knitting from a knitted cast-on (KCO). If it were done with a long or cabled crochet hook, it would look like the first half of a row of Tunisian Crochet (which we used to call "afghan stitch").

>First Row, Table Knitting (bottom)

The second row of table knitting works back across the loops of yarn, drawing a new loop of yarn through each of the first row of loops of yarn. This is consistent with the working of a knitted fabric, except that you see the loops laid out on a table instead of held in place by a needle. From here, table knitting continues on in the same manner of knitting a flat piece completely from the right side of the work - the same as if one were arm knitting or - knitting ambidextrously on knitting needles (my preferred method of working flat pieces).

Table Knitting versus Needle Knitting

Table knitting and arm knitting both bind off their stitches similarly to needle knitting. The usual method is to knit two stitches, slip the first stitch over the second, knit the next stitch, slip the previous (second stitch) over the new (third) stitch, continuing in that manner until you are left with one loop on one needle, and the thread all but secured.

The method I learned as a girl was to knit two together, slip the new stitch back to the other needle, and repeat instead.

That second bind-off method, done with an afghan hook, is identical to the second part of the "basic stitch" of Tunisian crochet.

Tunisian Crochet: Finishing a Row

All of this suggests to me, as I've suspected all along (growing up with both knitting and crochet skills), that there is a continuum between knitting and crochet, and a way of leveraging one set of skills to teach, or learn, the other.

*Arm knitting uses the knitter's arms in place of knitting needles. The stitches are long-tail cast over one arm and the work is done entirely from the front side of the work. Most arm knitting is done with several strands of "size 6 - chunky" yarns worked as one.