Antique and Vintage Crochet Hook Inspiration

When I crochet I like to have vintage and antique crochet hooks close by. I get special vibrations from the hooks. From these hand carved wooden hooks, I can almost hear the women who used them tell their husbands how to carve and shape the hooks for her needs. At other times, I can see a woman of the past carving them herself.



Another group of crocheters worthy of our admiration are the Irish women of the 1850’s who supported their families during the Irish potato famine by crocheting the most beautiful lace with little more than a needle made into a crochet hook.



You can view some examples of Irish crochet at the Lacis, http://www.lacis.com/ , museum of needlework, http://lacismuseum.org/exhibits.html . They have an online exhibit of gorgeous Irish crochet at http://lacismuseum.org/irish_crochet.html for all crochet lovers to look at, drool over and gain inspiration from.

So if you are lucky enough to inherit hooks from a relative or collect your own, keep them close while you crochet.

Special thanks to thery4 from the Hook & Needle Forum on Ravelry for her contribution to this topic, http://www.ravelry.com/groups/hook--needle-designs.

The P’s and Q’s of Crochet Hooks

I was asked when crochet hooks grew to sizes P and Q. Looking back through my research, here’s a summary of what I found. Please leave a comment if you can add to the information on large crochet hooks.

In the late 1930’s large wooden hooks started appearing to be used in rug making. The nine inch hooks were given the number sizes 10, 11, 13, 15 and 16 ─ no letters. When these were re-introduced in the late 1980’s the numbers had letters added so that J=10, L=11, M=13, N=15.

Size N and Q hooks began to show up in the mid 1970’s in product lines of the major hook manufactures. The Bates’ Jiffy hooks in sizes Q (15) and S (17) appeared in the late 1970’s.


Also in the late 1970’s the Handy Hook was introduced in sizes K, N, & Q and re-introduced in the early 1990’s.

Crochet hook sizes L, N, Q & S appear in the early 1980’s and the P (16) hook makes it debut. Q changes to a 19 but the millimeter size is given as 16 millimeter. Size S hook changes to 35 or 19 millimeter. The S hook was reintroduced in the early 2000’s as a “Speed Hook” by Lion Brand.

As you can see, the P and Q as well as the L, M, and N sizes fluctuated. Now, the Craft Yarn Council has standardized the sizes in millimeters as well as the letters/numbers. The following chart from the Craft Yarn Council shows the current hook size information.

The Yarn Council has solved the sizing issue on the P and Q hooks. What about the R? As you can see from the above chart, there is a jump in millimeter size from the Q to the S. My guess? Maybe they can’t come up with a consensus on what size the R should be.