A mystery of crochet….
Since clothing exited handmade clothes is what made us human and special. The art of crochet, knit , lace making, etc….. was developed and explored on all parts of the world. From the Andes, to the Himalaya, from the Vikings to Aboriginal lifestyle, they all had a form of handmade couture……
Designers like Oscar de la Renta, Jean Paul Gaultier, Doris Chan, Vashti Braha, etc…. build a brand and a lifestyle around the art of handmade fashion…
The tool that makes this fashion possible is the crochet hook. Crochet means hook. Have you heard of Penelope? This was one of the first Crochet magazines, in the 19th century. The first crochet pattern was printed in 1824. And yes, before that all the crochet, designs, were past on from mother to daughter, from generation to generation…..The first hook, was more like a tambour tool. Tambour is French for DRUM
But was it really invented in Europe? Truly we are not sure…. because there was no evidence that before the 1700 crochet part of fashion.
18th century Scandinavia, cold, dark and wet, was more focusing on fur, and bones. No hooks were back then but bone needles were quite common.
Maybe we have to look towards the Andes… Peru, Chili,…… or even Egypt. The first hooks have been discovered 300BC and was mostly for shawls. In Egypt was invented using a hook type bone needle the coptic stitch. It is still used today to bind books, by hand. This stitch, gives it more a knitted look.
The coptic stitch was known as naalbinding and from there is developed into crochet….. Loops and hooks developed into something else….
From here a new portal opens… a world of handmade is born and is spread ed like fire.
Eastern Europe was great with lace and embroidery but crochet was still far away…. Turkish crochet was special and developed into a path of its own. Due to wars and the Ottonman Empire spreading like smoke in a room, many different needlepoint, tambour, crochet techniques, etc…. came together like a melting pot. Many new techniques were invented. …..
Crochet had a strong point in the Edwardian Era as well in the Victorian Area. Due to the World Wars, not many pattern have been published. Crochet came back strong in the late 50s, 60s, and 70s of course with the famous Granny Square….
In the 80s and 90s crochet was not very popular but later on it made a slide comeback. Crochet developed into 3D, into art happenings. Despite all that, crochet stayed it fashion and was always part of Haute Couture.
I am happy to see that crochet is on the stage again… 2017 and it;s still on, in style, back to life and dressing new generations of women and girls.
My journey into the world of crochet, started early at the age of 7 and I was diving into the world of hooks and threads guided by my grandmother and mother. Of course I will pass it on….
How did you learned to crochet?
XO,
Lorena
