Crochet Queen: Royal Ramblings

Monday, January 6, 2014 This topic came about from the title of my article recently in Fiber Art Now magazine.  "Crochet As Art: A Conversation with 5 Free-Form Crochet Artists." Yes, the 5 artists I wrote about, all of which are in  my book  The Fine Art of Crochet , are free-thinking when it comes to their creativity. They are free-wheeling with the hook and use unique fibers in many cases. Once you read the article, tell me what  you think? Are these artists doing free-form crochet? In order to define free-form crochet, we must look way, way back to it's origins: Irish crochet. A brief history of crochet, including the Irish method, written by Ruthie Marks is available through The Crochet Guild of America . Unfortunately, there are no images on the site. On her blog, Nancy Nehring has a beautiful montage of Irish Crochet in reference to a class she taught in 2013 at Lacis . I wrote an article in Old Time Crochet Magazine (Spring 1998), "History of Irish...

I hesitate to place the “hobby” of crochet on a continuum with the many other crochet niches such as teaching, design and production where it would fall at the bottom with crochet art at the top. It is not my intention to discriminate against crochet hobbyists. In fact, hobbyists are indeed the backbone of this craft genre. For anyone who has even given thought to the illustrious history of crochet in Ireland, the concept of crochet as the tool that contributed to saving a nation from starvation is poignant and memorable story.  Working in unspeakable conditions by candlelight sometimes resulted in the workers losing eyesight! Crocheters developed fine skills which contributed to the production of exquisite crocheted laces sought after by the wealthy classes. Crochet became a business and a successful one at that. People were taught to crochet and urged to teach another in order to save the nation from starvation during the Potato Famine from 1845 to 1851. Celtic Crochet ...

The word crochet is derived from the French word, croche , meaning hook.  Early on it was almost entirely a convent art, classified as nun’s work.  The exact origin and date of crochet is in great doubt.  Some believe it goes back to before the time of Christ, but there is no record of this form of needle art before the 1800’s and it was not until the 1840’s that written instructions were published. Hand-turned hook from author’s collection Archeologists believe the Israelites were familiar with crochet during the time of Solomon, before the first millennium BC when they left Egypt.  Heinz Edgar Kiewe, in his book titled  The Sacred History of Knitting , concluded that crochet hooks were probably implements of that time. He refers to the story of one of Jesus’ followers, Akida Ben Joseph who was said to have used a crochet hook so that he might spend his time as a shepherd more usefully. Crochet has been handed down from generation to genera...