50 Fun Facts About Crochet

The word 'crochet' comes from a French word meaning what?

The French term is a diminutive of croche, itself from the Germanic croc, so the craft is literally 'little hook'.

The first published 'crochet' instructions (1823) appeared in a magazine from which country?

The magazine was Penélopé, and its colour plate showed five purses, three of them meant to be crocheted in silk thread.

In 19th-century Ireland, crochet lace-making was taught in convents as relief during which crisis?

Teachers were trained and sent across the country, and emigrants later carried the skill to the Americas.

By 1851, roughly how many women in Ireland were working in crochet?

Charity groups taught the technique free to anyone willing to learn, and by then it was taught in almost every convent in the country.

Who is generally credited with inventing Irish crochet, publishing the first book of patterns in 1846?

Irish lace became popular across Europe and America and was made in quantity until the First World War.

Traditional Irish crochet lace was worked with a very fine steel hook and fine thread of what fibre?

Modern Irish crochet lace is usually worked in mercerised cotton thread instead.

Clones, home to a famous Irish crochet lace and a lace summer school, is in which county?

Máire Treanor and a voluntary committee have run the Clones Lace Summer School since 1990.

An 1846 instruction book claimed crochet was originally practised by the peasants of which country?

The same author insisted the craft reached perfection in England before being 'transplanted' to France and Germany.

Which French king issued the 1653 passementiers' patent listing embroidery done 'on a crochet'?

The hook used in crochet most likely descends from the tools of the French passementerie trade.

In 1567 a tailor supplied silk thread 'for sewing and crochet' to which royal?

The tailor was Jehan de Compiegne, and the record reads 'soye à coudre et crochetz'.

Many textiles once identified as early crochet were actually made by which older looped-yarn technique?

The technique passes the full length of the working thread through each loop, and was used by Vikings and by Coptic Christians in Egypt.

How does the sizing of steel crochet hooks differ from that of regular hooks?

The smallest steel hook is a #14 at 0.9 mm and the largest a 00 at 2.7 mm; they are used for lace and thread work.

In US hook sizing, which letter-and-number label corresponds to a 6 mm hook?

The letters and numbers were collated by the US yarn industry's trade council from de facto standards and are always paired with metric sizes on packaging.

In the standard yarn-weight system printed on US ball bands, category 4 'Medium' is commonly called what?

The system runs from 0 (Lace) to 7 (Jumbo), plus a hand symbol for yarns worked with no hook or needle at all.

Which fibre is generally favoured for crochet, chiefly for its elasticity and warmth?

The trade-off is that it is less convenient to clean and some people are allergic to it.

Given the counter-clockwise crochet stitch, which type of yarn is described as most desirable?

Plying almost always twists singles in the opposite direction from which they were spun, which balances the yarn.

Skeins that were dyed together, and so match precisely in colour, share the same what?

Mixing lots, even of a very similar shade, can leave a visible stripe in the finished work.

The stitch abbreviated 'dc' in UK and international patterns goes by what name in US patterns?

In America the international system is often mislabelled 'British' or 'UK' terminology.

A US 'double crochet' is known by what name in UK and international terminology?

The name counts loops: yarn round and a drawn-up loop makes three.

Which of these, described as the most basic of all, is used to begin most crochet projects?

It is made simply by looping the yarn over the hook and drawing it through the loop already there.

Knitwear can be produced by machine, but most crochet stitches can only be made how?

This is why granny squares are still handmade and why 'crochet-look' fast-fashion pieces are really machine-knitted.

The two basic ways of holding a crochet hook are named after a pencil and what other everyday object?

The two are functionally equivalent and many crocheters use a hybrid of both.

The elongated tool with a stopper on the handle end used in Tunisian crochet is also known by what name?

It is shaped without a fat thumb grip so that many loops can sit on it at the same height.

Tunisian crochet has gone by many names, including 'idiot's crochet' and which royal-sounding one?

Other aliases include tricot stitch, Victorian crochet and fool's crochet.

Filet crochet imitates filet lace using only two stitches. Which pair (in US terms)?

Solid and open meshes on a grid form the picture, which is why patterns are usually worked from a two-colour chart.

Tapestry crochet fabric is said to look more like it was made how?

The effect comes from carrying two or more strands at once and switching colours mid-row.

Maya men in which country tapestry-crochet shoulder bags with recognisable regional patterns?

Both women and men there also make tapestry-crocheted hats and hacky sacks for tourists.

Unlike tapestry crochet, mosaic crochet typically uses how many colours per row?

The pattern appears by dropping tall stitches down into earlier rows over the other colour.

Amigurumi is the Japanese art of making what?

The craft became popular in the West around 2003 and was soon among the best-selling items on Etsy.

In the word amigurumi, 'ami' means crocheted or knitted; 'kurumi' literally means what?

The same element appears in nuigurumi, a sewn stuffed doll.

A granny square is worked in rounds starting from where?

Crocheters usually make many small squares, called motifs, and join them into blankets and clothing.

The earliest known granny square pattern, by a Mrs Phelps, appeared in 1885 in which periodical?

She described it as an afghan pattern 'on the principle of the crazy work so popular now'.

Granny square clothing is a cyclical fashion that peaked in which decade?

Debbie Stoller joked that for a while clothing 'was made of nothing else', down to vests, shorts and hats.

The black borders of a traditional granny square echoed which needlework fad of the 1880s?

Women of the era edged their quilt squares with black ribbon, and the crochet motif copied the look.

Broomstick lace is also known as jiffy lace and by which other name?

A broomstick really was once used to hold the loops; today a fat plastic needle or wooden dowel does the job.

In freeform crochet, the small scrap pieces that are later joined together are known by what coined term?

James Walters and Sylvia Cosh coined the word in the 1990s; Prudence Mapstone calls them patches instead.

Yarn-bombing pioneer Magda Sayeg says she got the idea after covering what with a hand-made cozy?

A passer-by loved it, and she and a friend formed the crew Knitta to tag stop signs, trees and car antennas.

The Crochet Coral Reef project was created by which pair of twin sisters?

The frilly forms are hyperbolic surfaces, the same geometry living reef organisms grow into.

The Crochet Coral Reef is produced by a Los Angeles non-profit with what name?

The reef has been shown at the 2019 Venice Biennale, London's Hayward Gallery and the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History.

The giant crochet coral project run by two Australian-born twins began as a response to the decline of what?

More than 10,000 people in over 40 cities and countries have crocheted pieces for its exhibitions.

The group that grew into the Crochet Coral Reef Project started making crochet reefs in what year?

By 2022 it had more than 20,000 contributors and its work had been seen by an estimated 2 million people.

Hyperbolic-crochet pioneer Daina Taimiņa is a mathematician from which country?

She taught at the University of Latvia for 20 years before joining Cornell's mathematics department in 1996.

Taimiņa's book 'Crocheting Adventures with Hyperbolic Planes' won which unusual 2009 award?

It later picked up a serious honour too, the Mathematical Association of America's 2012 Euler Book Prize.

Olympic diver Tom Daley runs a separate Instagram account for his yarn projects; what is it called?

During Tokyo 2020 he raffled knitted designs to raise money for The Brain Tumour Charity in memory of his father.

During TV coverage of the 2020 and 2024 Olympics, diver Tom Daley was often shown doing what in the stands?

In Tokyo he made a Team GB cardigan and even a little pouch to hold his gold medal.

Which broadcaster aired Tom Daley's 2025 show 'Game of Wool: Britain's Best Knitter'?

He announced his retirement from diving in August 2024, a day after the Paris Games ended.

Which country holds the record for largest crochet blanket, set in 2016 with help from 1,500 prison inmates?

Final assembly happened at Drakenstein Correctional Centre, where Nelson Mandela lived before his release.

Guinness lists Lisa Gentry as the fastest crocheter, with 5,118 stitches in 30 minutes; she set the record in a craft store in which US state?

That works out to about 170 stitches a minute, made as 284 shells of three tall stitches each.

How long is Anne Vanier-Drüssel's Guinness record crochet chain?

She crocheted it over about five months in 2008 and it was measured in Aniane the following year.

Which US body sets crochet terminology, hook sizing and fibre-labelling standards?

It also publishes the standard yarn-weight symbols printed on ball bands.