Is National Crochet Month a public holiday?

No, it is not a federal or public holiday. It is an unofficial craft-appreciation observance, so it is a normal working day with offices, banks, and schools open as usual.

Who started National Crochet Month?

The Crochet Guild of America created it, first as National Crochet Week in 1998 and then as a full month in 2000. The guild itself grew from a 1994 conference founded by Gwen Blakley Kinsler.

Is National Crochet Month the same as International Crochet Day?

No. International Crochet Day is a single day observed on September 12, while National Crochet Month covers all of March in the United States.

Did National Crochet Month really begin in 2005?

No, that is a common error spread by calendar aggregators. CGOA's own founder-written history dates the full month to 2000, after the earlier National Crochet Week began in 1998.

What is the difference between crochet and knitting?

Crochet uses one hook and works a single live loop at a time, while knitting uses two needles and holds a whole row of live stitches. That difference is also why crochet is still made by hand and knitting can be done by machine.

How do you take part in National Crochet Month?

You can join a Crochet Guild of America crochet-along, learn a new stitch, make a charity piece, or teach a beginner the basics. Many local yarn shops also hold classes and events through March.

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National Crochet Month

A craft-appreciation observance held throughout March celebrating crochet, the people who make it, and its place in fiber arts.

Monday

1–31

March 2027

Last updated February 26, 2026 · by the Holiday Calendar Team

Have an update or spot an error?

YEARLY DATEAll of March

OBSERVED INUnited States

CATEGORYHobbies

SUBCATEGORYKnitting

ORIGIN

Institutional Initiative

FOUNDING ENTITY

Crochet Guild of America (CGOA)

FIRST OBSERVED

2000

“CGOA declared National Crochet Week for March 16-22, 1998, and stretched it to all of March in 2000.

HOW THE HOLIDAY CAME TO BE

A crochet week that grew to fill all of March.

The Crochet Guild of America, the only national U.S. nonprofit devoted to crochet, first declared National Crochet Week for March 16-22, 1998, then expanded it to the full month in 2000 as National Crochet Month. CGOA itself grew from a 1994 Chicago conference founded by Gwen Blakley Kinsler.

INTRO

The one yarn craft no machine has learned to copy

PHOTO

Knitting machines have run for two centuries. They knit sweaters, socks, and whole bolts of fabric without a human hand. Crochet has never given in the same way.

Each stitch is pulled through the last with a single hook, in three dimensions, so no machine has been able to reproduce true crochet. Every crocheted blanket on a shelf was made by a person.

That stubborn, hand-only craft gets a full month of attention every March. National Crochet Month is run by the Crochet Guild of America, the group that put crochet on the calendar in the first place.

One correction belongs at the top. Many calendars say the month started in 2005. CGOA's own founder-written history puts it in 2000, and the guild that made the day should know its own birthday.

ORIGINS

Crochet Month history

INTRODUCTION

Crochet has a confident reputation and a thin paper trail. People call it ancient, even medieval, yet the record does not back that up. The honest starting point is a question: how old is crochet, really?

The most serious answer came from a Danish textile historian. Lis Paludan visited and wrote to museums across northern Europe and could not find a single piece of crochet predating the 19th century. Her conclusion was blunt: there is no convincing evidence for how old the craft is or where it came from.

CHAPTER 01

A craft that surfaces, suddenly, in the 1800s

The first hard evidence is a magazine. In 1824, the Dutch publication Penelope printed crochet patterns and described the craft as new and spreading. English pattern books followed around 1840.

For something later called ancient, crochet arrives in the record looking very much like a fashion of its moment.

Then came hunger. In 1845, as Ireland's Great Famine began, Ursuline nuns at Blackrock in County Cork added crochet to their school as charitable relief.

A hook and a length of thread cost almost nothing. The work could be done at a kitchen table, by lamplight, between other chores.

CHAPTER 02

How a hook became famine wages

The trade grew fast. By 1851, roughly 16,000 women across Ireland were working in crochet, turning fine-thread lace into income when the potato crop failed.

One name rises out of the period. Eleonore Riego de la Branchardiere published her first crochet manual in 1846, while still a teenager. She helped spread the style known as Irish point lace.

She is often called the inventor of Irish crochet. Historians are careful here. Irish makers developed the technique independently too, so popularized is the safer word than invented.

CHAPTER 03

From famine lace to a national month

The observance itself is much younger than the craft. In 1991, an American crocheter named Gwen Blakley Kinsler wrote a letter to the editor of Threads magazine. That letter drew enough kindred makers to fill a 90-person conference in Chicago in 1994, and the Crochet Guild of America was born.

The guild gave the craft a calendar. CGOA declared National Crochet Week for March 16 to 22, 1998.

With enough to celebrate, it expanded the week to the entire month in 2000. A craft with no documented ancient past finally had a documented birthday of its own.

WHY THIS DAY MATTERS

Why We Love National Crochet Month

HANDMADE

A skill that survives only in human hands.

Crochet remains hand work in a way most textiles no longer are. A month of recognition matters more for a skill that lives only in human hands, passed maker to maker rather than printed off a loom.

STEWARD

It is backed by crochet's only national body

The Crochet Guild of America describes itself as the only national U.S. nonprofit dedicated solely to crochet. National Crochet Month is the public face of that mission, giving a hand craft a yearly platform it would not otherwise have.

LIVELIHOOD

It carries a real history of survival work

Crochet was not always a hobby. In famine-era Ireland it was paid relief work for thousands of women, and the month keeps that economic chapter from being smoothed over into mere decoration.

BY THE NUMBERS

National Crochet Month by the Numbers

~16,000: Irish women in crochet by 1851
1824: First published crochet patterns
73%: Surveyed yarn crafters who crochet
28.8M: US knit/crochet participants, 2016

TIMELINE

Timeline

First published crochet patterns

The Dutch magazine Penelope printed the earliest known crochet patterns, already calling the craft novel and growing in popularity.

Crochet enters Irish famine relief

Ursuline nuns at Blackrock, County Cork added crochet to their convent school as charitable relief at the start of the Great Famine.

16,000 Irish women at work

By this year roughly 16,000 women across Ireland were earning famine-relief income from crochet lace.

The ancient-nuns myth circulates

Caulfeild and Saward's needlework encyclopedia guessed crochet was a 16th-century convent craft, seeding the ancient-origins story.

CGOA declares Crochet Week

The Crochet Guild of America set the first National Crochet Week for March 16 to 22.

A week becomes a month

CGOA expanded the observance to cover all of March, creating National Crochet Month.

GOOD TO KNOW

Common Misconceptions

Crochet is an ancient craft, thousands of years old, made by nuns in the Middle Ages.

No documented crochet predates the 19th century. The historian Lis Paludan found nothing older, and the medieval-nuns idea traces to a single guess in Caulfeild and Saward's 1882 needlework encyclopedia, which has no supporting evidence.

GET INVOLVED

How to Celebrate National Crochet Month

Join a CGOA crochet-along

The Crochet Guild of America runs group projects and contests during March. Check the guild's site for the year's activities and how to sign up.

LEARN

Learn one new stitch you have avoided

Pick a technique that has intimidated you, like the magic ring or a cluster stitch. A single new skill turns the month into progress rather than just practice.

MAKE

Make something to give away

Crochet a hat, a blanket square, or a pair of mitts for a shelter or hospital drive. The craft's roots are in charitable hands, so a donated piece fits the month well.

TEACH

Teach a beginner the basics

Sit a friend or child down with a hook and show them a chain and a single crochet. Crochet has always traveled person to person, not through machines.

VISIT

Visit a yarn shop or fiber event

Many local shops mark March with classes, sales, or stitch nights. Showing up supports the small businesses that keep the craft and its supplies alive.

Test your knowledge

How well do you know National Crochet Month?

1 / 7

Which organization created National Crochet Month?

Answer

It runs for all of March, every year. The Crochet Guild of America designates the whole month rather than a single date.

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