I have been crocheting for almost 10 years now and in my opinion it was not that difficult to learn. I’ve never used any fancy "wheels" or "rods" as you call them. In crocheting I just use my single crochet hook, usually size H.
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It’s not very hard at all to learn to knit or crochet. I learned to crochet first, and a few years later learned to knit. While many people love crochet, I never enjoyed it as much as I did knitting, so I’m a much better knitter than I am a crocheter.

The best site that I know if you want to learn to knit is:

http://www.knittinghelp.com/

It’s full of free videos that are easy to follow. They are great to start out with, and as you get better, there are more videos with more advanced techniques, so you don’t have to hunt all over the place for what you need.

For crochet, I would suggest going to YouTube and trying this video series:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEKK7KICyGw

Or just type in "learn crochet" into their search engine there. You will find alot of instructional videos that way.

Those "knitting wheels" as you call them, or french knitting kits, and all the rest of those sort of things, do work, but they are very limited in what they can do, so it’s hard to make a variety of things. And learning to knit the "real" way is just as easy as learning to use those in the long run, and once you learn the basics, the sky’s the limit.

Good luck, and happy knitting! (or crocheting!)

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