Football Cap (1890): vintage crochet pattern

Materials

• Superfine (CYC #1) fine wool (approximate equivalent of the original Eider wool): 1½ oz (43 g); or fine silk thread: 3 balls (ball size not printed). A contrasting colour for the band and button (quantity not printed).
• Crochet hook (original: crochet hook No. 12)
• A large button or curtain ring to cover, black silk lining, a strip of leather 3 in (7.5 cm) deep
• Hook: Start with about 2.5 mm (US B-1/C-2) for wool; no gauge is printed — keep the work rather tight and match the 7 in (18 cm) top diameter

Abbreviations (US terms)

ch

chain

sc

single crochet

sl st

slip stitch

st

stitch

sts

stitches

rnd

round

rep

repeat

inc

increase

yo

yarn over

lp

loop

Notes before you start

• Source: "Football Cap (No. 9)" (No. 9), The Book of Hats and Caps, Faudel, Phillips & Sons, 1890. Public domain in the USA.
• As printed — materials: Japanese Silk or Eider Wool; Crochet hook, No. 12; 3 balls of silk, or 1½ oz. of wool. Gauge: Not given.
• Modernisation note: Victorian British stitch names converted to modern US terms. The book defines "single crochet" (in No. 4, the Dundee Bonnet: "the needle in the next stitch, draw the wool through and through the loop on the hook"), which is a modern slip stitch, so "single crochet" and "single" are written as sl st. The book gives no definition for "double crochet" or "treble", so the standard UK→US conversion is applied: UK double crochet = US single crochet (sc); UK treble = US double crochet (dc).
• Modernisation note: Period wording modernised: "wool" written as "yarn"; "needle" (meaning the crochet hook) written as "hook"; "unite" written as "join with a sl st"; "plain" rounds (no increasing) written as "work even"; "the wool on the needle" written as "yo"; "rows" written as "rounds" where the work is in rounds; "receipt" written as "pattern".
• Modernisation note: Hook numbers are on a period British gauge. A No. 12 wool hook is commonly tabulated as about 2.5 mm on the old UK scale, but Victorian numbering varied between makers, and no stitch gauge is printed — the suggested metric size is a starting point only; work to the printed measurements.
• Modernisation note: Period yarn names (Peacock Fingering, Eider, Andalusian, Japanese silk, netting/purse silk) have no exact modern equivalent; the modern yarn weight given is an approximation based on how these yarns were described at the time.
• Modernisation note: No stitch gauge is printed; the book sizes its caps by measurement (diameter or head size) instead.
• Modernisation note: Long printed paragraphs split into one row, round or step per line; stitch order unchanged.
• Modernisation note: UK "double crochet" written as sc. "The thread round the needle" and "the thread on the needle" written as "the thread round the hook" / "the thread on the hook"; the raised stitch otherwise kept in the book's words because it has no modern name.
• Modernisation note: "Make 2 stitches in every 3rd stitch of the round underneath" written as "… of the round below". Section headings (Top, Brim, Button) added.
• Modernisation note: Check: the raised stitch in Rnd 3 is punctuated ambiguously in the book ("Insert the needle in the next stitch, draw the thread through the thread round the needle, draw through the same loop again, the thread on the needle, draw through all the loops on the needle"). It appears to be: insert hook, yo and pull up a loop, yo and insert into the same st again to pull up a second loop, yo and draw through all loops. Kept as printed — try a swatch first.
• Modernisation note: Check: the number of brim rounds with quarter increases is not printed, and the order of "When you have worked the top, work … 6 rounds" after the brim directions is unclear (the 6 even rounds may belong before or after the brim increases). Kept in the printed order.
• Modernisation note: Metric conversions added.