In the World of Crochet
When I think about crochet and yarn over the last 40 years, the song title Everything Old Is New Again and the slogan, “You’ve Come a Long Way, Baby” come to mind.
Modern crochet dates back to the 16th century. Over the years, crochet has evolved from church textiles and Irish filet, to home decor and clothing. At the turn of the last century, the popularity of afghans, rugs, pot holders and cozies emerged. Granny squares appeared in the 1890s; in the Depression, the humble motif stretched one’s yarn stash while frugally improving home decor. Crochet was a utilitarian craft that is now the source of all kinds of projects in all skill levels. As we celebrate Crochet World’s 40th birthday, nothing has changed and everything has changed in the last four decades. Open any crochet book, magazine or crochet website and you’ll still see clothing, home decor, afghans, accessories and holiday items, but it’s the quality and varieties of the designs that have changed for the better as well as the yarns and tools available. Peruse Ravelry to see amazing designs: delicate socks, beautifully textured stitch combinations, gorgeous sweaters, shawls and tops, even a spectacular rainbow umbrella and a granny square horse sculpture. Crochet has risen from humble beginnings to become an art form of huge proportions. A Singapore festival featured 220-pound crocheted sea urchins, and the internationally exhibited Crochet Coral Reef brings awareness to the vanishing ecosystems.
Fiber and animal shows have been held in the United States since the first one in California in 1926. The ‘70s, ‘80s and ‘90s saw a rebirth in crochet interest and a surge in fiber festivals in many states. The popularity of fiber shows and guilds has grown in the United States and around the world. In 1991, Gwen Blakley Kinsler (www.crochetqueen-royalramblings.blogspot.com) wrote a newsletter, Our Crochet Chain Link, that led her to start the first crochet guild in the United States. The Northern Illinois Chapter was the charter chapter of the Crochet Guild of America, which was founded in 1994.
Many of us “suffer” from HAS (Hook Acquisition Syndrome). We love the variety of hooks available. Crochet hooks have been, well, crochet hooks for hundreds of years. In her article History of Crochet for Crochet Guild of America (www.crochet.org), Ruthie Marks cites that hooks were made from whatever the crocheter could find, starting with one’s own fingers, then made from wood, animal bones and tusks, copper, silver, wire, and cork or bark (for the handle) and other materials. Click on “Crochet Hook Classification” at Nancy Nehring’s site, www.lacebuttons.com, for a list of unusual old hooks. Today, the emphasis is on comfort with ergonomic hooks. In-line and tapered hooks are embedded in cushioned, square, ribbed or other handles with unusual shaping or made completely from exotic woods; all are intended to prevent or alleviate pain from carpal tunnel syndrome, arthritis and other discomfort in hardworking hands. For a bit of whimsy, novelty hooks with LED lights are great for stitching in a dark movie theater before the film starts! The availability of yarn has changed drastically as well. According to Ravelry, companies large and small that produce yarn number more than 11,000. Yarn is manufactured in mills around the world or spun and dyed by folks in their own workshops. The 1979 edition of Reader’s Digest
Complete Guide to Needlework shows common yarns: acrylic; various wools including Shetland, fisherman (an unbleached wool), Icelandic and novelties (boucle, chenille and lurex); and also cotton threads. The pickings appear to have been slim back then. Today, the choices are unbelievable! In addition to threads, there are 8 weights of yarn from 0 (lace or fingering) to 7 ( jumbo). Fibers are as common as inexpensive acrylics in generous skeins or as refined and pricey as Qiviut (pronounced “kiv-ee-ute”), a luxury yarn from the musk ox. It retails from $80 per hank. Between these extremes are yarns of wool, silk, nylon, cotton, rayon, metallic, linen, hemp, bamboo, soy, milk solids, seashells, mohair, alpaca, angora and polyester. Novelty yarns resemble eyelashes, fur, puffs of fluff, ladders or crimped ribbon. Some have slubs, pompoms, tendrils, beads or sequins embedded in a smooth yarn, or are groupings of ribbon, and there are smooth, metallic and chainette yarns. There are strands wrapped with
a reflective filament—a great safety feature for after-dark garments—that wasn’t available years ago! Eco-friendly yarns are made from recycled plastics, T-shirts and saris. There are beautiful hand-dyed yarns, some of which are plant or vegan products made without any animal-based dyes or fibers. Color in yarn has exploded. Look at patterns from the 1980s: colors were bright but basic and the choice of multicolored yarns was limited. Today, there are endless variations of every solid shade, countless variegated and ombré combinations— some of which are intended for pooling and self-striping—and now we also have stunning gradient skeins and multi-hank gradient sets. The timeless granny square continues to be a staple of the design world. In 1978, Coats and Clark (now Red Heart) offered Rib Ticklers, a pattern card which featured a granny square motif in a vest. Red Heart released an updated, 6-size version of the same design in 2015. In 1979, Red Heart offered a collection of designs in larger women’s sizes—a new innovation back then! Now, most clothing patterns are sized to at least four sizes and some are available in ten sizes. Free-form crochet developed in the 1970s with roots in Irish crochet. James Walters and Sylvia Cosh are credited as the pioneers of this style in which the crocheter creates unique pieces of her or his own design that do not conform to the conventional shapes and patterns of more traditional crochet. Over the last 40 years, freeform crochet has grown in popularity, thanks in part to designers Margaret Hubert, Prudence Mapstone and Jenny Dowde. From this movement comes “scrumbling,” which Walters defined as, “Our word for an easy approach to free-form crochet (that is, making things up as you go along), which involves making lots of different pieces more or less at random, changing colours, textures and stitches often, and then joining them.” (www.crochet.nu/ scjwc/index.html) There’s no doubt that the growth of the internet from the 1970s–1990s increased the popularity of crochet. Patterns, yarn, instructional videos and websites selling everything a crocheter needs are at one’s fingertips. But many of us are die-hard fans of all things tactile. We want and appreciate the beauty and convenience of publications such as
Crochet World and its sister magazine, Crochet! Our purchases are made in yarn shops so we can see and feel the product and form bonds with like-minded owners and patrons who add to our enjoyment of the craft in immeasurable ways. And that’s something that in 40 years has only changed for the better!