Arkansas Crochet Guide
Why a crochet guide?
When we first started searching for objects that pertained to our own definitions of womanhood, I’ll admit I was a bit lost. I tried to think of how I could apply myself to this project with my skills as an art major. So one of my early ideas was to draw or paint an object from the collection that pertained to feminism. Someone in the group pitched the idea of drawing a pregnant animal skeleton from the zoology collections, and I really loved that idea because skeletons are so much fun to draw. However, I am so glad that I ended up not choosing that because I found something else that really taught me what womanhood is all about.
Someone else suggested looking at historical textiles. I looked at garments and shawls and didn’t really see anything that struck my eye – until I opened one of the drawers that held smaller garments. Inside I found a typed guide to crochet written by an Arkansas woman named Joy Broach in the summer of 1958. I decided that I would experiment with Joy’s projects firsthand.
Selected Museum Piece:
Fancy Works of Years Gone By
Object Number: 59-20-7
“What does womanhood mean to you?” is a question that I personally have been digging at since February at the first meeting about this interdisciplinary study. We landed on the concept of feminism and womanhood by discussing what all of us participants had in common, which initially was very little. I didn’t know Raziel or Victoria before this project and we all seemed to have lived very different lives. What brought us together was womanhood.
So I had to take a step back for a minute and think. It is such a broad question. I personally have identified as a feminist ever since I learned what feminism is, which by definition, is advocating for women’s rights based on equality of the sexes. I had always taken pride in being a strong woman, but I still thought that maybe womanhood could be something deeper than that, but I wasn’t quite sure yet.
I thought about this crochet guide and the many hours I spent experimenting with crochet, and realized that one aspect of womanhood that makes it so special is that women help each other out. I mean, Joy herself was helping other women by writing instructions on how to make different types of lace and compiling them into the guide. While looking at the object, I thought about all of the simple ways women in the group had helped me with this project; suggesting objects to investigate, all of us backing each other up about wanting to have our project be about feminism, giving each other rides to the meeting, and the list goes on.
While attempting to learn the basics of crochet, I watched lots of YouTube videos on how to do it and all were by women. I talked to my mom, who has no idea how to crochet, but she helped me brainstorm solutions for this project. And, I talked to my grandma multiple times about it. She’s been invested and interested in this project since I told her about it, and she gave me some crochet lace as an example – one piece that was manufactured, and one that was made by one of her neighbors from the 80’s, in hopes of helping me with this project.
I realized that this project wasn’t necessarily about the end results, but about what I learned about being a woman – and that is that women always help and stick up for other women, whether it’s in a small way such as helping brainstorm ideas, or a big way like creating a guide for other women to use.
To all of the strong women who have come across this project, I challenge you to do this: help one another – even in the simple ways, because it can make a difference. Empower each other. I am a huge believer that ladies can change the world, and that we are stronger together – that is what womanhood means to me.
Her Bio:
Meredith Tinkle is a senior Art Education major with a focus on painting and printmaking.