Crochet is part of the Yarn Crafts family, using a single hook plus yarn to create a fabric. Crochet is always done by hand; there is no way to mechanize crochet production due to the complex movements of the hook at different angles.
Because it produces a thicker, stiffer fabric than knitting, crochet tends to be used for stuffed animals, household goods (e.g. coasters), and bags.
Supplies
For crochet, you need crochet hooks of different sizes depending on the yarn you work with. One nice thing about crochet is that the stitches don’t stay on the hook, so if you want to take a break from a project, you can use the same hook you were using for a new project. Crochet hooks can have ergonomic handles that drive up the price, but you can get a single one for under $5, or a set of most common sizes for under $15. You may also need stitch markers depending on the pattern.
Resources and Tutorials
- Hookfully A – Z List of Crochet Stitches has pictures and tutorials for over 200 crochet stitches.
- The Crochet Crowd Abbreviations Guide has explanations and links to videos for a very thorough list of crochet jargon.
- Yarnutopia 365 Days of Granny Squares has images for a year of granny square crocheting, with a link to a video and pattern for most of them.
- Ravelry (free account required, but it’s worth it and they’re not spammy or weird) is the best database of free and paid crochet patterns (including specialty granny square patterns, along with garment designs that use different quantities of granny squares), plus reviews, example projects, etc.
Crochet and Data
For purposes of textile data visualization, the tendency for crochet patterns to involve building up (especially garments) from repeats of discrete, smaller pieces makes it more flexible than knitting, where you tend to be limited to counting rows / stitches. For instance, a sweater made up of large and small granny squares (which themselves involve repeats of visually distinct stitch patterns) lets you encode data at the level of the granny square, and/or within each granny square, as if the granny square were a pie chart.
If you’re making stuffed toys (especially if you’re making more than one), you might be able to use size as a way to convey different quantities of data (e.g. a survey with a few respondents vs. many).
If you’re working with an existing pattern, you can use color and/or quantity to represent different data values.