Q 01/05

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

A) Hook

B) Loop

C) Knot

D) Thread

Answer · why

A) Hook

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

Q 02/05

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

A) France

B) England

C) Germany

D) Netherlands

Answer · why

D) Netherlands

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

Q 03/05

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

A) The Land War

B) The 1798 Rebellion

C) The Great Famine

D) The Easter Rising

Answer · why

C) The Great Famine

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

Q 04/05

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

A) 1,600

B) 60,000

C) 160,000

D) 16,000

Answer · why

D) 16,000

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

Q 05/05

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

A) Thérèse de Dillmont

B) Elizabeth Grant of Rothiemurchus

C) Riego de la Branchardière

D) Cornelia Mee of Bath

Answer · why

C) Riego de la Branchardière

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