Crochet guide
History of crochet
Nobody knows who invented crochet, or exactly when. What can be shown is that the first sure signs of crochet in Europe date from the early 1800s. The first known printed patterns date from the 1820s, and by the 1840s pattern books and Irish crochet lace had spread it widely.
On this page 8 parts
The short answer
- Who invented crochet? Nobody knows. No inventor is recorded.
- When? No date is known. Researchers who looked for early crochet in Europe found no sure evidence of it before 1800.
- What is the oldest dated evidence? Printed patterns from the 1820s.
What is documented
| When | What |
|---|---|
| Early 1800s | The first firm traces of crochet in Europe. |
| 1820s | The first known printed crochet patterns appear, in a Dutch magazine. They are for purses worked in silk thread. Sources date them 1823 or 1824. |
| 1840s | Books of crochet patterns are published in number. |
| From 1845 | Irish crochet lace becomes a source of income during the famine in Ireland. |
| Late 1960s and 1970s | A new generation takes up crochet as a means of expression. |
By comparison, knitted fabric survives from much earlier. Knitting can be dated far back. Crochet cannot.
What is only guessed
Three old theories. Writers have put the birth of crochet in three places:
- Arabia, with trade carrying it as far as Tibet in one direction and Spain in the other.
- South America, where one people is said to have used crochet ornaments in a coming-of-age rite.
- China, where early dolls are said to have been worked in crochet.
None of the three has been proved. The researcher who set them out found nothing that settles how old crochet is or where it began.
An earlier start. Some writers put crochet centuries before 1800. Historians disagree. Researchers have not been able to document crochet in Europe before the early 1800s, and older work once labeled crochet has often turned out to be a different looped technique.
Where it most likely came from
The link historians point to most is tambour work, a kind of embroidery. The worker stretches a cloth on a frame and uses a fine hooked needle to pull loops of thread up through it. Each loop is drawn through the one before, which makes a chain stitch on the cloth.
Leave out the cloth and work the chain on its own, in the air as French writers put it, and you have the first step of crochet.
The word fits this story. Crochet is French for a small hook.
Why nobody can name an inventor
- Old names do not tell the crafts apart. An early form of crochet was known as shepherd's knitting, and looped work of several kinds has gone by many names.
- It was probably not one invention. Crochet seems to have grown from more than one older craft, and where and when they came together has not been determined.
Irish crochet and the famine
Irish crochet is a fine lace that grew up in Ireland in the middle of the nineteenth century. During the famine that began in 1845, making crochet lace became a way for poor families to earn money. The craft was taught as famine relief, in convents, in schools and in classes set up for the purpose.
The earnings helped some families to emigrate. Irish crochet was also sold abroad, in America among other places.
The invention of Irish crochet has been claimed for one nineteenth-century writer of pattern books.
Questions people ask
When was crochet invented? No date is known. The earliest dated evidence is printed patterns from the 1820s. Books of patterns followed in the 1840s.
Is crochet older than knitting? Not on the evidence. Knitted fabric survives from many centuries earlier.
Where does the word come from? From French. It means a small hook. What is crochet? has more on the word and how to say it.
Where to go next
- What is crochet? explains what the craft is and its main kinds.
- Crochet vs knitting compares the two.
- To try it yourself, start with how to crochet, or browse the crochet patterns.