"We are all linked through a global yarn that keeps us connected"
The Power of Knitting by Loretta Napoleoni
On a dreary wet and very grey Sunday afternoon when I was about 5, my grandmother used the time wisely to teach me how to crochet. She had already attempted to teach me how to knit and we both spent more time waiting for her to fix the problems I had created by dropping stitches or getting the yarn in a knot. She reasoned that one stitch would be easier for me and not so hard to stuff up, so crochet was the go. She could not abide ‘idle hands’ or TV. By the end of the first month I had produced a couple of granny squares. By the time I was nine I was doing blankets for babies. By the time I was in my 20s I decided knitting was more my thing and produced easy garments, mostly jumpers. By my thirties, with two small children around most of the time, I returned to crochet. It only has one stitch on the hook at a time. You do not have to wait until the end of the row to intervene in a squabble or mop up a drink or read a book for the two hundredth time, the work can be put down and picked up again, with ease.
Crochet is a mindful activity, as is knitting and many other crafts but there is something about the rhythm, the pace and the end result that offers me a greater mindful opportunity in crochet than say, yoga. I have a friend who jokes that she “crochets so she does not stab people,” and a couple of beats later, “ so far it has worked”. I agree with her. Sometimes picking up my hook in the daytime feels like a rebel act of self-care. Day time should be spent doing active things to assist in the running of the household, or work. The self-care completing a granny square or a row of bright red shell stitch, as in my latest blanket gives me time to let my mind wander or think about a knotty problem. Craft is good for well-being but crochet offers the well-being in spades for me.
When my grandmother taught me how to do trebles, half trebles and doubles, she did not have any idea of where the craft came from. She had been taught by a relative as it was necessary, for a girl about to go into ‘service’ as a scullery maid, to be able to do all hand crafts, just incase it was needed. (She was also taught how to repair lace, fix a seam and knit) Since that time and as my skill level has increased I have learnt about the history of crochet.
Where crochet came from
Knitted articles have been found in historic sites that date back to before the time of Christ.. Crochet is harder to pin down and appeared a lot later. A handcraft that looks like it could be crochet but is a different technique called ‘Nalebinding’ appeared in Scandinavia and is still popular there. The earliest example has been dated about 430BC. Unlike crochet it has more than one loop on the hook at one time and the result looks more like knitting. Socks and mittens and bracelets made by a small indigenous tribe in Peru, the Nanti use this method. It is sometimes referred to as ‘one needle knitting’.
Modern crochet, as we would recognise it, seemed to have emerged in the 19 Century. Named for the French work for ‘hook’, the first published pattern appeared in a Dutch magazine for women with time on their hands, Penelope in 1823. The pattern was for a small bag and used double crochet using a Tambour hook. Tambour embroidery used hooks to fashion stitches ‘in thin air’ and then anchor them down into the piece being worked on. An entry in the Diderot Encyclopedia on Tambour Embroidery (1763) appeared with illustrations that show hoops and other equipment for embroidery that included hooks that look similar to hooks used today. It states hooks, not unlike fishing hooks, are made of steel or ivory and can be used wool or silk. The hooks were often called “Shepherd’s hooks” and in England crochet was known as “Shepherd’s knitting”.
Memoirs of a Highland Lady by Elizabeth Grant (1797-1830), still available on Amazon, include an entry dated 1818 about Shepherd’s knitting using a hook. The book, written originally for family, was not published until 1898, edited by Grant’s niece, Lady Stracey. Along with a chronicle of the family’s financial ups and downs Grant documented the day to day in her memoir, much of it to do with which of the staff were pregnant and by who, but also new crafts being introduced to household.
In the 1840’s a number of books of crochet patterns where published, one stating
“Crochet, — a species of knitting originally practised by the peasants in Scotland, with a small hooked needle called a shepherd's hook, — has, within the last seven years, aided by taste and fashion, obtained the preference over all other ornamental works of a similar nature. It derives its present name from the French; the instrument with which it is worked being by them, from its crooked shape, termed 'crochet.' This art has attained its highest degree of perfection in England, whence it has been transplanted to France and Germany, and both countries, although unjustifiably, have claimed the invention”
Miss Lambert My Crochet Sampler 1844.
Items of clothing belonging to royalty, Louis XIV and Elizabeth I were adorned with passementarie a form of lace that used a hook to form the patterns. This form of embellishment is used today for military uniforms and dress clothes. Bobbin cotton was the main material used originally but not gold and embroidery thread, sometimes with beads are used.
Crochet really took off in the 20 Century. Who did not have a crocheted granny square blanket in their house? We had several made of oranges, blacks and brown, all made by my grandmother to go with the wallpaper, as I recall. Also all the rage in the 1970’s were shades of brown ponchos. I had one. I remember watching Olga Corbett win her gold medal at the Munich Oylmpics and thinking she would be wanting a poncho just like mine to set off that gold medal.
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