As I was doing some research using old pattern books for an upcoming project, I came across this pattern for a crochet watch fob1 that, to my surprise, had a swastika dangling from it. The first thought that zapped through my brain was, “Great. It isn’t bad enough that crochet gets such a bad rap, but now I have to deal with it being the preferred technique when the Nazis had craft time.”
As I read the pattern, something struck me. I was reading the pattern. That’s not right. I shouldn’t be able to read a German pattern. The most I know of a foreign language is “beefy bean burrito.” It was in English! Hmmm. Things aren’t adding up. A quick look at the copyright and publisher showed that it was published in Chicago in 1915. This looks like a case for Almighty Google.
I knew from my years of obsessed watching of The History Channel that ancient societies were using the swastika in their symbology centuries2,3 before the man with the iron chip on his shoulder ever came to power. But in 1915? In Chicago?
I turns out that the swastika was used in America during the 19th and early 20th centuries as a good-luck symbol2,3. So much so that even Coca-Cola used it in 1925 as a watch fob for advertising.
It is so interesting to me that through the course of human events something can go for centuries as a cherished religious symbol or good-luck charm and then through the adoption of one man it can be turned into a symbol of hate and murder. The inversion of this of course is how something for hundreds of years was a symbol of hate and murder and by the event of one man it turned into a cherished religious symbol and good-luck charm. That would be the symbol of the cross.
The final conclusion: The Nazi party, like much of the world today, did not crochet.
And that concludes the history lesson for today. Next time on Chain Stitching through History, Wooly Mammoth Fur: worsted or wasted?
1. EM Devere. Crocheted watch fob. Richardson’s Irish Crochet Book; 1915 Chicago, Ill. Pg. 27.
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swastika
3. http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Swastika%23North-America
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