Crochet Afghan Couch Cover No. 852 (1919): vintage crochet pattern

Materials

• Medium (CYC #4) wool yarn — the original was Utopia 8 Fold Germantown: 34 hanks of Blue and 34 hanks of Gray
• Crochet hook (original: No. 5)
• Tapestry needle
• Hook: Start with 5 mm (US H-8) and change size to match the printed measurements (no gauge is printed)

Abbreviations (US terms)

ch

chain

sc

single crochet

dc

double crochet

sk

skip

st

stitch

sts

stitches

rep

repeat

rnd

round

row

row

Notes before you start

• Source: "Crochet Afghan Couch Cover No. 852" (No. 852), Utopia Yarn Book: Being a Practical Treatise on Knitting and Crocheting (Fourteenth Edition), Henry E. Frankenberg Co., New York, 1919. Public domain in the USA.
• As printed — materials: 34 hanks Blue Utopia 8 Fold Germantown.; 34 hanks Gray Utopia 8 Fold Germantown.; Crochet Hook, No. 5.. Gauge: Not given.
• Modernisation note: Stitches converted by the book's own definitions ("Explanation of Terms Used in Crocheting"), not by name: s. c. ("insert hook in ch. or st., draw the wool through, over, and draw through both loops on hook") = modern US sc; h. d. c. (over, insert, draw a loop through, over, draw through the three loops) = hdc; d. c. (over, insert, draw a loop through, over and through two loops twice) = dc; t. c. / treble crochet ("over twice", then through two loops three times) = tr; sl. st. (insert, over, draw through st and loop on hook) = sl st; ch. = ch; "over" = yo. For these stitches the 1919 American names already match modern US usage, so no stitch changes height.
• Modernisation note: Period abbreviations and wording modernised: s. c., h. d. c., d. c., t. c., sl. st., ch. written as sc, hdc, dc, tr, sl st, ch; "m." written as mesh; "st. of ch." written as "ch" where the stitch is a chain; "wool"/"thread" written as yarn; "needle" (used for the crochet hook) written as hook; "break off yarn" written as "fasten off"; "repeat" written as "rep"; ordinal row names ("Second Row", "Twenty-first Row") written as Row 2, Row 21.
• Modernisation note: Long printed paragraphs split into one row, round or step per line; stitch order and counts unchanged. Section headings added for navigation where the text runs on.
• Modernisation note: Hook numbers (bone, ivory, amber/celluloid No. 1–5) refer to the book's own illustrated scale of 1919 hooks, which pictures the hooks but prints no diameters, so no exact metric size can be read from the book. The suggested modern hook is a starting point chosen for the yarn weight.
• Modernisation note: No stitch gauge is printed anywhere in the book; work a swatch and match any printed measurements (in the modern gauge line) before starting.
• Modernisation note: Utopia yarns are 1919 trade names with no exact modern equivalent. The modern CYC weight given is an approximation only: Utopia Shetland Floss was a soft, fine, lofty 2-ply wool (treated here as fine, CYC #2); Utopia Alpaca and Llama wools, and the Worsted and Silk Mixture, as light (CYC #3); Utopia Germantown (zephyr) as light (CYC #3) and 8 Fold Germantown as medium (CYC #4); Scotch Knitting Yarn/Worsted as medium (CYC #4); 3 Fold Saxony as super fine (CYC #1). Yardage is never printed — the book gives skeins, balls or hanks only, and their weight is not stated.
• Modernisation note: Repeats are kept as printed ("repeat from * 3 more times" means 4 repeats in all).
• Modernisation note: The square's printed "rows" are labelled as rounds (Rnd 1–26), because each is worked all around the square; the starting ring is labelled "Ring". The border keeps "rows" as printed.
• Modernisation note: "1 p." written as "p" (picot); its definition, printed inside Rnd 3, is repeated on its own line first.
• Modernisation note: Check: the layout of the 24 squares is not printed; a checkerboard of 4 by 6 squares, alternating Blue and Gray, matches the illustration. Nothing has been added to the directions.
• Modernisation note: Check: the counts between corners in Rnds 17–24 increase by 2 sts per round without stated increases, and Rnd 19 (3 sc + 9 × [p, 4 sc]) gives 39 sts against the 37 of Rnd 18. Left as printed.
• Modernisation note: Check: the border is printed as rows ("to end of row, turn") although it goes around the whole couch cover. Left as printed.