Vintage Crochet

  • Thread starter Thread starter lindapoirier
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I love crochet! I learnt to crochet myself a couple of years ago. It's not a vintage trend but I'm fond of amigurumi (making 3d figures/ soft toys in crochet). I made this dinosaur.


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I do crochet every now and then. Never made a full garment but small things like pot holders etc. I do like it, and you can definitely made some fantastic things with it! 2 years ago, there was a trend here with an effect yarn that had like soft bristles - you could crochet pads to use for washing up (also works as a bath sponge)... and the metallic yarns looked great for making Christmas ornaments. I got some of the yarns and two books with patterns here at the department store after a friend posted this on Facebook and went into chrochet overdrive :hysterical:. I made all sorts of things as presents or little decorations for presents. Like knitting, I chrochet in front of the TV, so this was perfect. Handmade gifts that don't take forever to make and are actually useful.
 
It's hard for me to get behind the idea of crocheted fashion, maybe because I came of age in the 70s when long crocheted vests had their (brief) moment. I do own several afghans crocheted by older family members, and love their coziness on a damp chilly night.

Remember Cate Blanchett walking a 2009 red carpet in a granny square dress? She has such great style she can carry off almost anything. But she ended up on a lot of Worst Dressed lists that year.
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I am happy to see celebrities and designers "discovering" crocheted items. I believe women's handiwork-crocheting, knitting, embroidery, quilting and more- is underrated. Why? I suspect it is partly unconscious prejudice against "women's work." It broke my heart that I could never price exquisitely working linens for what I thought they truly were worth.
Marian
 
Vinclothes said:
I believe women's handiwork-crocheting, knitting, embroidery, quilting and more- is underrated. Why? I suspect it is partly unconscious prejudice against "women's work." It broke my heart that I could never price exquisitely working linens for what I thought they truly were worth.
Marian
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I also knit which I've been doing much longer than crochet, and am more skilled in. I'm a relatively fast knitter. But I couldn't command a price for my knits that reflects the hours or the skill that goes into making them. Hence I only make things for myself or as gifts. I agree that at least part of this issue is not valuing "women's work".
 
Art made by women tends to sell for less than art made by men, even in the same field. An example is the prices achieved by the sculptures of Henry Moore vs those if Barbara Hepworth. They were contemporaries of each other, both highly regarded, do work that most would consider to be of equal merit and skill, yet Henry Moore's work reaches much higher sums when sold. This 'pay discrepancy' in the art world is an observable phenomenon. The reasons are probably multi faceted, it's not quite as simple as plain misogyny, but it's there.

So in a craft that is predominantly practiced by women (of course not entirely, men do needlecraft, just not many), it follows that the entire craft is less valued.

It would be interesting to compare prices for needlework crafts vs, say, marquetry, that I imagine is a more male dominated field. To some extent I expect that all handicrafts are not valued enough in this age of machine made cheap goods, but I expect that traditionally female crafts suffer an extra layer of it.
 
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