Chennai is fast emerging as the crochet capital of the world and The Mother India Crochet Queen (MICQ) needs to be credited for it. The MICQ, which began in 2015, broke a world record for the third consecutive time by displaying the world’s largest collection of crochet sculptures at SRM University campus on Saturday, January 21.
A team of 720 people from all over the world created 58,917 crochet sculptures to set a Guinness record by working hard over the last five months. Out of 720 people, 532 of them were from India, while the other 188 are from abroad. They made crocheted 3D sculptures in the form of Amigurumis, which are small crocheted dolls.
What are crochets?
Crochet is a process of creating fabric by interlocking loops of yarn, thread, or strands of other materials using a crochet hook. The name is derived from the French term crochet, meaning ‘small hook’.
While talking to The Hindu, Subhashri Natarajan, founder of the crochet club said, “We broke the record by assembling 58,917 crochet sculptures. All were made by members of MICQ across the world.”
Crochet doll
Natarajan further added that for the world record, the entries were divided into two sections: thematic and random. The teams were given themes like pollution in the ocean, alternative energy sources, solar energy, science and food for crochet sculptures. Work for this began five months ago, and all the sculptures were sent to the founder of MICQ.
On January 20, the adjudicator and his team manually counted entries from 5 pm to 11 pm. The number was verified again the next day and only then was the record announced. The record was adjudicated by the Guinness World Records, London.
The theme of the crochet sculptures was ‘Go Green, Save Earth’.
For their next project, the MICQ will knit warm olive green cowls and caps for soldiers and will hand them over to the Army in January 2019.
Earlier, the MICQ broke the Guinness World Record for the largest crochet blanket measuring 11,148 square meters in 2015. In May 2017, they made the world’s longest crocheted scarf totalling 14.089 kilometres in length. They also broke Great Britain’s record of 13,348 crochet sculptures in 2014.
