Another aspect of this automation of knitting versus automation of crochet, is that the fundamental base stitch in knitting is very simple: the knit stitch. And for the hand-cranked hobbyist knitting machines, that is all that they produce: knit stitches. I assume that industrial-level knitting machines can do more, but even if they didn't, there is a large world of stuff that can be created with just knit stitches. On the other hand, the fundamental stitch in crochet is the single crochet, and that is a more complex stitch, requiring more than pulling a loop through an open loop.
#crochet @crochet #knitting @knitting #automation