Crocheting cultures: Contemporary craft practice in Italy and United Kingdom

Crochet creates a fabric by inter-looping yarn using a hook. Likewise, it produces artefacts and objects inter-looped in the history, culture and physical space of its location. When we look at a piece of crochet crafted by a mature woman, we are looking at what Daniel Miller would describe as a lace-like tangle of cultural values, narratives and social relationships in the scope of his material culture approach (1987). Despite the recent popular explosion of DIY craft groups, online and offline, and the consequent growing interest in crochet from contemporary practitioners and the general public, crochet has been a subject neglected by academia since the early 2000s.

Based on the study of traditional and contemporary crochet practice between rural and urban areas of Northern Veneto (Italy) and London (UK), the aim of this research project is to uncover the significance and values of contemporary crochet practices from the point of view of practitioners in the three fields of leisure, art and fashion.

The primary research at the basis of this study has been carried out through an original style of interview, which I named practice interview. The main methodological characteristic of these interviews is that they are conducted during my own crochet practice with the interviewees. Then, the materials that I collected (in the form of video recordings, audios, crafted artefacts and photographs) have been analysed through semiotic methods in the framework of Miller’s material culture approach and ANT network theory.

This study investigates the central role played by space for the practice of crochet in the circulation of artefacts between families, communities and the broader networks of art and fashion systems. In addition, this research analyses how social and cultural values are embedded within the craft and negotiated in the fields of leisure, art and fashion.

The author has restricted access to the text of this thesis.