What is crochet?
A: Crochet is a process of creating textiles by using a crochet hook to
interlock loops of yarn, thread, or strands of other materials.
The name is derived from what French term?
A: Crochet, meaning 'hook'.
Hooks can be made from a variety of materials, such as
what?
A: Metal, wood, bamboo, or plastic.
It was used in 17th-century French lacemaking, where
the term crochetage designated what?
A: A stitch used to join separate pieces of lace.
What is the key difference between crochet and
knitting?
A: Each stitch in crochet is completed before the next one is begun, while
knitting keeps many stitches open at a time.
Some variant forms of crochet, such as Tunisian crochet
and broomstick lace, do keep what?
A: Multiple crochet stitches open at a time.
The word crochet subsequently came to describe both the
specific type of textile and what?
A: The hooked needle used to produce it.
Knitted textiles survive from as early as the 11th
century CE, but the first substantive evidence of crocheted fabric emerges
where?
A: In Europe during the 19th century.
Earlier work identified as crochet was commonly made by
what?
A: Nålebinding, a different looped yarn technique.
The first known published instructions for crochet
explicitly using that term to describe the craft in its present sense
appeared in what Dutch magazine in 1823?
A: Penélopé.
In the 19th century, as Ireland was facing the Great
Irish Famine (1845–1849), crochet lace work was introduced as a what?
A: A form of famine relief (the production of crocheted lace being an
alternative way of making money for impoverished Irish workers).
Men, women, children joined a cooperative in order to
do what?
A: Crochet and produce products to help with famine relief during the Great
Irish Famine.
Schools to teach crocheting were started and teachers
were trained and sent where?
A: Across Ireland to teach this craft.
Mademoiselle Riego de la Branchardiere is generally
credited with the invention of Irish Crochet, publishing what in 1846?
A: The first book of patterns.
Irish lace became popular in Europe and America, and
was made in quantity until when?
A: The first World War.
When did fashions in crochet change?
A: With the end of the Victorian era in the 1890s.
Crocheted laces in the new Edwardian era, peaking
between 1910 and 1920, became what?
A: More elaborate in texture and more complicated stitching.
The strong Victorian
colors disappeared, though, and
new publications called for what?
A: White or pale threads, except for fancy purses, which were often
crocheted of brightly colored silk and elaborately beaded.
After World War I, far fewer crochet patterns were
published, and most of them were what?
A: Simplified versions of the early 20th-century patterns.
From the late 1940s until the early 1960s, there was a
resurgence in interest in what?
A: Home crafts, particularly in the United States.
Many new and imaginative crochet designs were published
for what?
A: Colorful doilies, potholders, and other home items, along with updates of
earlier publications.
These patterns called for thicker threads and yarns
than in earlier patterns and included what?
A: Variegated colors.
The craft remained primarily a homemaker's art until
the late 1960s and early 1970s, when the new generation picked up on crochet
and popularized what?
A: Granny squares, a motif worked in the round and incorporating bright
colors.