Thanks for the response lynn! Sounds like we have a pretty similar story. I too felt so much better after quitting drinking, but it also always nagged me that I kept smoking. I knew I wasn't 'sober,' and was only trading one addiction for another.
I totally hear you on the alcohol being more destructive in the short term. Hangovers, blackouts, acting like a total moron, dangerous behavior...it's tough to ignore those things. But with weed I could smoke all day every day and still function...sort of. In retrospect it isn't functioning to any appreciable degree, and in fact I was handicapping myself intentionally every single day with it, but there just weren't those immediate and drastic consequences that come with drinking. In many ways this makes weed that much more dangerous; it is such an insidious drug. The fact that it sticks around your system for so damn long doesn't help, either. Smoking regularly ensures you are ALWAYS chronically intoxicated to some extent.
I can't say I've ever heard of a knitting hangover, so i'd have to agree that's definitely a healthy substitution!