A craft of making fabric from yarn using a single hooked needle; also the handmade lace or garments created this way.
From French 'crochet' (small hook), diminutive of 'croche' (hook). The French word comes from Old Norse 'krōkr' (hook), showing how the Normans brought this textile technique to England after 1066 with a Norse-derived French word.
Crochet exploded in popularity during the Victorian era when Queen Victoria took it up—it became the trendy hobby of choice, much like knitting or cross-stitch today. Royal approval turned a craft into a cultural phenomenon.
Crochet became gendered as 'women's work' in 19th-century Victorian culture, when it was commercialized as a domestic craft for women and excluded from male craftsperson traditions. This gendering persists in marketing and cultural assumptions.
Use simply as a craft/skill without gender descriptors. Anyone of any gender can crochet—highlight diverse practitioners.
["fiber art","textile craft","handcraft"]
Women preserved and advanced crochet technique across generations and cultures; men have historically been excluded from acknowledgment of crochet mastery even when equally skilled.
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