Crochet History

[Krystal16]

My DH and I were talking last night, and we wondered (as we tend to wonder these stupid things) just WHERE and WHEN did crochet start? It's not like embroidery where you've heard of it being done AGES past.

 

So, I looked it up and found this - pretty neat...

 

http://www.florilegium.org/files/TEXTILES/crochet-FAQ.html

 

Didn't know if any of you knew or cared about this.?!?!

[Crocus58]

Interesting read - thanks for finding it.

[nightowl]

How refreshing to see a sensible article on this topic! I have read so many pieces on crochet's alleged ancient origins, complete with the Egyptian tombs and the nuns' work; it's as if these authors feel crochet needs a long false pedigree to be able to hold its head up as a legitimate craft among the knitters and lacemakers. The term used in my French magazines for a chain stitch is maille en l'air (stitch in the air), which would fit with what Lady Christian says about crochet evolving from tambour work.

 

Interestingly, tatting seems to have appeared at about the same time and has also been supplied with a false history. Many books claim (wishful thinking?) that the craft developed from knotting couching thread, a popular pastime for ladies in the 17th and 18th centuries, and include reproduction portraits of these ladies posing with their jewelled shuttles and silk knotting bags. (While checking this online I just came across a site that claimed tatting dated from the Middle Ages!) But tatting is entirely different from knotting and, like crochet, there is no documented evidence of it before the 19th century.

 

Personally I don't feel the fact that these crafts are relatively "new" takes anything away from them. Rather I feel all the more admiration for our wonderfully clever and creative great-great-grandmas and the needlework authors such as Mlle Riego who saw the possibilities and laid the foundations for the crafts we love today.

 

Smiles,

[Tiga]

I read in Donna K's Encylopedia of Crochet that since it is a "thread rich" craft, it wasn't until the advent of cheap, industrially produced thread that it became affordable or even feasible to crochet.

 

It uses something like twice the thread/yarn for a similar garment that knitting does, I think. I could be wrong on the amount, but it does use significantly more, I've read.

 

So, it makes sense that it wouldn't be done until thread was cheap.

 

I've also read that until Queen Victoria, who crocheted, that it was considered a "low class" activity, as it was used to copy cheaply the fancy needle laces that the upper class wore.

[Ladycrochat]

Very interesting ladies.....thanks for sharing!

[craftconnie1]

my opinion; tatting was for making lace, and the thread in the tatting shuttle was expensive so that ruled out the poor but wool in a large size was available and the need for a larger hook was made. If you look a a tatting shuttle it really is just a hook and a casing. I know they are not the same craft, but we must remember that crafts were not passed on through the written word but through watching. crochet is a french word for hook. there is a theory that the crochet ( lace ) work evolved from french sailors who mended their nets with a hook. Frankly I don't care when or how it became such an artform, but I am thankful to our foremothers who started it all, one chain at a time.

[tygger428]

I've also read that until Queen Victoria, who crocheted, that it was considered a "low class" activity, as it was used to copy cheaply the fancy needle laces that the upper class wore.

 

I guess we should all say thanks to Queen Victoria for this much, even if we disagree with other views, etc. that she may have had. Surely, this helped popularize crochet in her time; other women, especially those trying to be on good footing with the Queen, would have started crocheting.