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It's interesting that a technology (crocheting) used in fishing communities for millennia and a pattern ("granny squares") used in furniture making for centurie

by bregma 5y ago

It's interesting that a technology (crocheting) used in fishing communities for millennia and a pattern ("granny squares") used in furniture making for centuries can be traced back to American pioneers after the commercial revolution. I have no doubt it's true that granny squares made out of commercial yarn only developed in the 19th century after commercial yarn became available, and patterns only became published after mass-market magazines became widely available. I'm more skeptical that the technique of crocheting, a technology used to make and mend fish nets, was not in use by the distaff side of a household long before that and the the relatively obvious way of making piecework using homespun yarn and hooking through the holes of a previous row was not common among groups of otherwise-idle hands. Techniques and patterns have long been passed on orally. Unfortunately history of textiles and domestic arts is pretty much entirely unrecorded and unstudied because it doesn't tend to leave much hardware lying around. There are 25000-year-old spindle whorls sitting beside rough-knapped stone axes, shure, but a wooden crochet hook? Rotted away. Sheep-wool granny squares? Eaten by moths. Oral history? Unheard.

eesmith 5y ago
The article is clear that there are related technologies, but they are not the same: > “I’m not aware of a single verified example of European or American crochet in the 17th or 18th century,” Jay Templin said. Crochet-type hooks were used for lacemaking, but not for what we now know as crochet. Blankets in this era were strictly made of woven fabric. “We don’t see any knit or crocheted blankets in the colonies at all; they show up in the U.S. in the middle 19th century,” The Wikipedia entry adds: > 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.[5] Earlier work identified as crochet was commonly made by nålebinding, a different looped yarn technique. I can find no mention of how crocheting came directly out of making or mending fishing nets. Looking at descriptions of how to make fishing nets (eg, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8gQ8MR-bb0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8gQ8MR-bb0) they don't look similar. Indeed, quoting the nålebinding entry in WP: > the technique is distinct from crochet in that it involves passing the full length of the working thread through each loop, unlike crochet where the work is formed only of loops, never involving the free end. while that fishing net example shows passing the rest of the line ("the free end") through the net.
msrenee 5y ago
I don't believe crocheting was ever used for fishing nets. It really doesn't make a lot of sense for that use. A big problem with crochet is that it's made with a single strand of yarn and if you pull the end, it will unravel. There's a lot of useful knots for mending nets. I'd really need to see a reference to believe crochet has ever been a preferred method. I googled granny squares in reference to furniture and can't find anything about that either. I can't pretend to know anything about furniture making though.

by bregma 5y ago

eesmith 5y ago

The article is clear that there are related technologies, but they are not the same: > “I’m not aware of a single verified example of European or American crochet in the 17th or 18th century,” Jay Templin said. Crochet-type hooks were used for lacemaking, but not for what we now know as crochet. Blankets in this era were strictly made of woven fabric. “We don’t see any knit or crocheted blankets in the colonies at all; they show up in the U.S. in the middle 19th century,” The Wikipedia entry adds: > 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.[5] Earlier work identified as crochet was commonly made by nålebinding, a different looped yarn technique. I can find no mention of how crocheting came directly out of making or mending fishing nets. Looking at descriptions of how to make fishing nets (eg, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8gQ8MR-bb0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8gQ8MR-bb0) they don't look similar. Indeed, quoting the nålebinding entry in WP: > the technique is distinct from crochet in that it involves passing the full length of the working thread through each loop, unlike crochet where the work is formed only of loops, never involving the free end. while that fishing net example shows passing the rest of the line ("the free end") through the net.

msrenee 5y ago

I don't believe crocheting was ever used for fishing nets. It really doesn't make a lot of sense for that use. A big problem with crochet is that it's made with a single strand of yarn and if you pull the end, it will unravel. There's a lot of useful knots for mending nets. I'd really need to see a reference to believe crochet has ever been a preferred method. I googled granny squares in reference to furniture and can't find anything about that either. I can't pretend to know anything about furniture making though.