What is the basic mechanics of knitting, crocheting and quiltwork?

Well, I don’t knit or crochet, but quilting involves:
• Determining your pattern (often geometric)
• Cutting fabric swatches to piece together the pattern
• Sewing those pieces together
• Adding backing, batting and a border.

I only knit, but the basics include picking yarn, getting yourself some different sized needles, perhaps a row counter, and some markers, and knitting whatever the hell you feel like. It is fairly simple and really fun, especially great for gifts. Knitting goes pretty fast too, unless you’re using tiny needles. And there are some really beautiful yarns out there, so I find picking out yarn to be pretty fun. Also you can “felt” knitted things by washing them for about 20 minutes…this makes everything kinda come together so it’s more of a solid than a loopy holey knitted thang….but that you can only do with yarns that are wool…anyhow, shazzam, knitting is awesome.

What I meant was, what is the structure of something that is knitted? Is it just a single strand of thread that gets hooked to itself? What keeps one row connected to another one? As you can tel,l I am pretty clueless as to what is going on.

For knitting and crocheting, the basic make up is a single (or multiple used as a single) strand of yarn (or any material which simulates yarn) brought through the loop of the proceeding row. This is how it stays in one piece. The techniques of knitting and crocheting are very different. For crochet, one hook is used with one hand doing most of the work. The yarn is wrapped around the hook and brought through a loop on the proceeding row. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqca00LdmAc

In knitting, two needles are used and the working stitches (all of them) are kept on either one needle or the other. Wrapping and pulling up a loop are still the primary functions just performed very differently. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uw-nUvGrBY

These videos show the foundation row and a very basic stitch. There are many more stitches used in each but the principle is the same of wrapping and bringing up a loop which attaches the new (from the ball of yarn) yarn to what has already been made.

Thanks. I will check out the videos when I get a chance.