The word crewel, with a variety of spellings, can be found in English records dating back to the 13th century. It is thought to have come from the East to Egypt then to Greece and Rome where it traveled with the Roman conquests to England. From the 15th century crewel embroidery meant any embroidery technique using fine worsted yarns. By the 20th century crewelwork had been redefined to mean surface embroidery with wool.

Crewel, by definition, is the application of a variety of stitches to the surface of fabric, usually linen, following a design applied to the fabric. The technique is at least 1,000 years old, it was used in the Bayeaux Tapestry, which depicts the Battle of Hastings 1066.


The use of 2 ply wool (2 fold wool twisted yarn) gives very tight, fine quality stitching, use of this type of wool allows more colour variations and sharper patterns.

Single ply wool, is relatively thicker wool and gives a rustic look, since the edges are not as sharp as produced by double ply yarn.

Today the valley of Kashmir in North India is home to this timeless art, where all the sticitching is done by hand with the use of a small hand tool, known as 'Aari'.

**************************************************************************************

The centuries old Kantha is an exquisite decorative stitch for textiles from ancient rural Bengal. It is based on a humble quilting stitch that is so precise that the reverse as neat as the obverse. The designs included motifs such as the lotus for purity and other flora, animals from the natural habitat, the sun energy and vahanas ‘carriers’ of deities for invocation of their blessings.

Today Kantha revivalist movement has contributed to the empowerment of women in Rural Bengal through a network of team leaders, allowing them to work at home amongst other duties of the home and rural life.