Why isn’t there a machine capable of crocheting, when so many machines can knit?
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Crochet needs more directions of motion than are really practical.
A good way to explain how much more complicated it is would be to look at milling equipment. a basic drill has no axis of movement–you do all the movement yourself. A drill press has one axis o movement–up and down. A mill has three axes of movement–vertical, side to side, and forward and back. Fancy CNC mills might have 2 axes of movement for the part and up to 3 for the head. I’ve never heard of a 6-axis milling machine, but it might exist.
A crochet machine needs 9 axes of movement. a knitting machine needs 4 and makes better fabric. there are ‘crochet machines’ but they’re basically one-stitch wonders that are essentially knitting machines with an extra axis of motion.
Crochet is a world of lawlessness. It’s the Deadwood of fiber arts. If you can claim that next loop and hold it, it’s yours! Knitting is like Manhattan. We know it’s going to be popular and accessible so it’s gotta make sense, so you get rows and columns.
There ARE machines capable of crocheting. They’re just uncommon. The fabric resulting from most crochet type stiches varies in thickness and difficult to sew into clothing. Knit fabric is friendlier to more clothing applications and fabric weights. Its easier for humans to use crochet to make round shapes, three dimensional shapes, and highly textured fabrics. The manipulation required to do that is easy for humans, but its a lot for a machine to do. A knitting machine you can have a row of hooks all doing the same exact movement thousands of times in a day while the resulting fabric gets carried away and onto a roll. So much simpler.
There’s also a huge difference in demand for fabric made with crochet and knit. How amnu people want to run in crocheted socks? Or wear a crocheted bra to work? And could you even make a waterproof crocheted garment? it would be a waste of time even to try it when the same thing is so much easier with knits or a nonwoven fabrics. They’re not just easier to produce, knit fabrics just seem to be more practical for everyday needs.
Crochet is basically a bunch of fancy knots all linked together. Knit is just loops. Loops are easier for a machine to make than knots.
The first knitting “machine” that automated (by hand) knitting was built in 1589. They called it a stocking frame. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stocking_frame
I don’t actually think a machine can’t crochet. I’d argue Kuka and similar robots could do it just fine. A bit harder would be programming them, but they can be programmed from manually moving their arms so a crocheter could program a robot.
But I don’t think it would be profitable. The robots are fairly expensive so it would be expensive to scale the operations.
Might help a tiny bit to know that (by hand) knitting uses two needles, with one holding the previous row of stitches (if they come off they will pull through and unravel the piece). Crochet is done with one needle that has a hook on the end to pull a loop through, with the hand holding the rest (which stays together by itself). It is dark magic and nobody knows how it works, least of all dumb machines
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