Crochet

Crochet (English: /kroʊˈʃeɪ/ 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 the French term croc, which means 'hook'. Hooks can be made from a variety of materials, such as metal, wood, bamboo, bone or even plastic. The key difference between crochet and knitting beyond the implements used for their production, is that 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 multiple crochet stitches open at a time

The best-known English pangram is "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog".[1] It has been used since at least the late 19th century[1] and was used by Western Union to test Telex/TWX data communication equipment for accuracy and reliability.[2] Pangrams like this are now used by a number of computer programs to display computer typefaces.

Origins

Knitted textiles survive from as early as the 11th century CE, but the first substantive evidence of crocheted fabric emerges in Europe during the 19th century.[6] Earlier work identified as crochet was commonly made by 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 the Dutch magazine Penélopé in 1823. This includes a colour plate showing five styles of purse, of which three were intended to be crocheted with silk thread.[7] The first is "simple open crochet" (crochet simple ajour), a mesh of chain-stitch arches. The second (illustrated here) starts in a semi-open form (demi jour), where chain-stitch arches alternate with equally long segments of slip-stitch crochet, and closes with a star made with "double-crochet stitches" (dubbelde hekelsteek: double-crochet in British terminology; single-crochet in US).[8] The third purse is made entirely in double-crochet. The instructions prescribe the use of a tambour needle (as illustrated below) and introduce a number of decorative techniques.

The earliest dated reference in English to garments made of cloth produced by looping yarn with a hook—shepherd's knitting—is in The Memoirs of a Highland Lady by Elizabeth Grant (1797–1830). The journal entry, itself, is dated 1812 but was not recorded in its subsequently published form until some time between 1845 and 1867, and the actual date of publication was first in 1898.[9] Nonetheless, the 1833 volume of Penélopé describes and illustrates a shepherd's hook, and recommends its use for crochet with coarser yarn.

Two years later, the same author writes: Crochet, — a species of knitting originally practised by the peasants in Scotland, with a small hooked needle called a shepherd's hook, — has, within the last seven years, aided by taste and fashion, obtained the preference over all other ornamental works of a similar nature. It derives its present name from the French; the instrument with which it is worked being by them, from its crooked shape, termed 'crochet.' This art has attained its highest degree of perfection in England, whence it has been transplanted to France and Germany, and both countries, although unjustifiably, have claimed the invention.

An instruction book from 1846 describes Shepherd or single crochet as what in current British usage is either called single crochet or slip-stitch crochet, with U.S. American terminology always using the latter (reserving single crochet for use as noted above).[13] It similarly equates "Double" and "French crochet".

Notwithstanding the categorical assertion of a purely British origin, there is solid evidence of a connection between French tambour embroidery and crochet. French tambour embroidery was illustrated in detail in 1763 in Diderot's Encyclopedia. The tip of the needle shown there is indistinguishable from that of a present-day inline crochet hook and the chain stitch separated from a cloth support is a fundamental element of the latter technique. The 1823 Penélopé instructions unequivocally state that the tambour tool was used for crochet and the first of the 1840s instruction books uses the terms tambour and crochet as synonyms.[15] This equivalence is retained in the 4th edition of that work, 1847.

Types of Stitches

There are six main types of basic stitches (the following description uses US crochet terminology which differs from the terminology used in the UK and Europe).