Square-Mesh Crochet Insertion Worked the Short Way (1854): vintage crochet pattern

Materials

• Cotton crochet thread about size 60 (period: cotton No. 60; approximate), white
• Narrow ribbon for lining (optional)
• Fine sewing needle for running in the ends
• Hook: No hook size is printed. Start with a 0.75 mm (US steel 14) hook for size 60 thread and adjust; no gauge is printed.

Abbreviations (US terms)

ch

chain

sl st

slip stitch

dc

double crochet

st

stitch

row

row

sk

skip

rep

repeat

Notes before you start

• Source: "Crochet Insertion, Worked the Short Way", The Ladies' Complete Guide to Crochet, Fancy Knitting, and Needlework (Mrs. Ann S. Stephens), Dick & Fitzgerald, 1854. Public domain in the USA.
• As printed — materials: Cotton, No. 60, for children’s dresses, &c.. Gauge: Not given.
• Modernisation note: Stitch names checked against the book's own definitions (pp. 22–23), which describe the same stitches as modern US terms, so they are kept: “ch.” = ch; “sl.” / “slip” = sl st; “sc.” = sc; “dc.” = dc (US, not UK); “tc.” (treble crochet) = tr; “l tc.” / “long tc.” (long treble crochet) = dtr; “miss” = sk. Note that the book's “tc.” is a modern US tr, not a UK treble (US dc).
• Modernisation note: Period wording modernised: “needle” (meaning the hook) → hook; “commence” → begin; “close for a loop”, “close in a round” and “form it into a round” → join into a ring (the book does not name the joining stitch unless it says “slip”); “under” a chain → in the ch-sp; “fasten off” → FO; “alternative” → alternate. Repeat marks (✕, +, *, †, ¶, (a)) are written as parentheses with the book's total count.
• Modernisation note: Printed paragraphs split into one step per row, round or instruction; no stitches, counts, rows or rounds added, removed or reordered.
• Modernisation note: Period cotton numbers (Evans's crochet cotton and “boar's-head” cotton) do not match modern thread sizes exactly; the modern thread size is a starting approximation. Choose the thread that suits the hook and gives lace of the right fineness.
• Modernisation note: No yardage or weight of thread is printed for this design, and none is estimated.
• Modernisation note: The engraving for this design is not among the surviving illustrations of the book, so it is transcribed from the text alone.
• Modernisation note: The footnote “Turn the work at the end of every row” is placed with the stitch notes.
• Modernisation note: No hook size is printed for this design; the suggestion is based on the thread only.
• Modernisation note: Check: the book says only “This completes the pattern”; it does not say which rows to repeat for the length (rows 3–10 would continue the design, but that is not stated).
• Modernisation note: Check: row 8 prints “✕ 2 ch., miss 2, 1 dc., 2 ch., miss 2, 4 dc. ✕ 2 ch., miss 2, 1 dc., to the end” with no repeat count; it is transcribed as a single group.
• Modernisation note: Check: “slip up the side of the last dc. stitch 5 ch.” — the ch 5 is read as standing for a dc plus ch 2 at the start of the row.
• Modernisation note: The book adds that, done in coarser materials, it would be “equally pretty and useful for many articles of the lady's toilette”.