I think I can defend our orcy friends with the following excerpt from one of the many Tolkein Letters obviously doctored by me...
Quote:
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"Based on some of the more unsubstanciated interpretatios of the etymology of yrch, I would very much like to clear this matter up before it spirals out of control and folk begin the distribution of totally unauthorized use of the orkish dialects. You see, the origin of the word orc in Arda's many languages is less complicated than it appears. All races have a generalization for the race in their own tongue but none of these have any relation. In truth, since the Black Speech is similarly a backwards dialect, the word orc is, in all obviousness, a backwards name. Thus, it can be told that the name orc in fact means something to the defect of cro which is merely cockney uruk slang for crochet. It is told further that these crochets were named thus because of their original use by Melkor, which was knitting via crochet and the dreaded 'needles of Angband.' Over time, Morgoth the Enemy most certainly found more belligerent uses for a species to hostile to remain knitters for eternity. Morgoth now had no need of fine clothing and tapestrie-esque curtains and draperies for the pits of Utumno, so he trained the cros in the way of war until they became the hostile, backwards, society with theur own brutal dialect that we now know. From thence on, they were known as orcs or yrch and forgot all the skills of knitting. Doubtless they could re-learn this fine ability if properly taught, perhaps by elven maidens."
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Letters of Tolkein, Forgotten #223, 1953 (NOT!)
And there you have it. Undeniable proof that orcs know how to, and could again, knit with the utmost precision.