Hope Chest Bedspread Border, Plate 14 (1918): vintage crochet pattern

Materials

• Cotton crochet thread — the book prints no size for this design
• Steel crochet hook to suit the thread (no hook number is printed in the original)
• Tapestry needle for joining and for the ends
• Hook: Check: this book prints no hook number and no needle number for any design — not on the cover, not on the abbreviations page and not beside any plate. No modern hook can therefore be read across from a printed size. Match the hook to the thread the design names and change size until the fabric matches the photograph.

Abbreviations (US terms)

ch

chain

sc

single crochet

tr

treble crochet

dtr

double treble crochet

st

stitch

sts

stitches

sp

space

sk

skip

row

row

rep

repeat

Notes before you start

• Source: "A Bedspread from Grandmother's Hope Chest — Border" (Plate 14), Knitted and Crocheted Bed Spreads, Book No. 11, Anne Orr, Nashville, Tennessee, 1918. Public domain in the USA.
• As printed — materials: Not printed — the book gives no cotton number for this design.. Gauge: Not given.
• Modernisation note: Stitches are converted by this book's own printed definitions under “DIRECTIONS OF STITCHES”, printed page 2 (image p-02.jpg), not by the look of the abbreviation. The naming is MODERN US. Its “SINGLE CROCHET” (No. 3) is: “Make chain, insert hook through second last chain, throw thread over hook, draw through, throw thread over hook, draw through both loops at once.” That is the modern US sc. Its “DOUBLE CROCHET” (No. 4) is: “Throw thread over hook and draw a loop through foundation chain; throw thread over hook and draw through two loops, thread over hook and draw through last two loops.” That is the modern US dc, not a single. Its “TREBLE CROCHET” (No. 5) is: “Throw thread over hook twice, draw a loop through foundation chain, throw thread over again, draw through the two loops, throw thread over and draw through two, thread over and draw through last two.” That is the modern US tr. Its “SLIP STITCH” (No. 2) is: “Insert hook in foundation chain, draw a loop through it and the loop on hook.” Its “PICOT” (No. 6) is: “Chain 4 and make single crochet in fourth chain from hook.” So this book's sc, dc and tc/tr are written sc, dc and tr here with no shift of height.
• Modernisation note: The book's “CROCHET ABBREVIATIONS” list, printed page 2 (image p-02.jpg), reads: “ch—stands for chain. sc—stands for single crochet. dc—stands for double crochet. tc—stands for treble crochet. sl st—stands for slip stitch. st—stands for stitch. blk—stands for block. hdc—stands for half double crochet. lat—stands for lattice. sp—stands for space. h tr—stands for half treble. tr—stands for treble. p—stands for picot. m—stands for mesh. f m—stands for fancy mesh. l m—stands for long mesh. sk—stands for skip. sh—stands for shell. r st—stands for roll stitch. tr tr—stands for triple treble. ks—stands for knot stitch. d tr—stands for double treble.” The book lists both “tc” and “tr” for the same stitch, treble; both are written tr below and that is the only abbreviation changed.
• Modernisation note: The book's own definitions for the fancy stitches used in these designs, all printed page 2 (image p-02.jpg), quoted so nothing has to be guessed. ROLL STITCH (No. 17): “Roll thread around needle 15 times, put thread over and draw loop through the entire 15 loops, then make one chain stitch.” KNOT STITCH (No. 8): “Having a st on the needle, drawing the loop out to the length of 3 ch, draw the thread through for ch st. Take up the single thread of this loop and work one sc st on it. Repeat once. Skip 5 sts of the previous row, if not knot st, and work 1 sc. If the previous row be knot st, make 1 sc each side of the sc between the long loops of last row.” SHELL (No. 14): “Make chain required length. Ch 3 for 1st tr, 3 tr in 4th st of ch, ch 2, 3 tr in same st *, sk 5, 3 tr in next st, ch 2, 3 tr in same st. Repeat from *. 2d Row of Shells—Make sh in each ch 2.” FANCY MESH (No. 13): “Also called Lacet. This consists of two rows. The first a row of long meshes, 1 dc, 5 ch, skip 5 st, 1 dc, repeat. For the second row, 1 dc in dc of long mesh, ch 3, catch in center of 5 ch of 1 m, ch 3, dc over dc.” SPACE (No. 7): “This is for Filet Crochet Work. Chain two stitches, skip two stitches, one double crochet into next stitch.” BLOCK (No. 9): “Also for Filet Crochet. Four dc in adjoining sts. The number of dc in adjoining blocks is found by multiplying the number of blocks by 3 and adding one.”
• Modernisation note: The book calls every round and every row a “Row” (“1st Row—”, “2d Row—”). Pieces worked outward in joined rounds from a centre ring are labelled “Rnd” below and pieces worked back and forth keep “Row”; the numbering is the book's own and nothing has been renumbered. Run-on paragraphs are split at the book's own row marks, one row or step per line. No stitch has been added, removed or reordered.
• Modernisation note: Every figure below was read back against the page image, because the scanned text of this book carries the usual optical slips: its “8” and “38” very often stand for the printed 3 (the scan's “ch 8” is “ch 3” on the page in most places), its “Ist” and “ist” are 1st, its “de” is dc, its “bik” is blk, its “si st” is sl st, its “\4”, “}%”, “14” and “1%” all stand for the printed ½, its “trin” and “scinto” are “tr in” and “sc into”, and its “WMake” is Make. The rows below follow what the printed page actually shows; the quoted extract for each design is left exactly as the scan reads, untidied.
• Modernisation note: No gauge is printed anywhere in this book.
• Modernisation note: No finished size is printed for this design — the book gives no bed size, no motif measurement and no stitch-to-inch figure — so none is stated here.
• Modernisation note: Check: no colour is printed for any design in this book. The photographs show a plain light thread. White and écru are recorded below as the usual period choices for a cotton bedspread, not as this design's printed colour.
• Modernisation note: Modern thread suggestions below are added by this transcription and are not in the original; the original's own cotton number is kept in the materials exactly as printed.
• Modernisation note: Check: no thread and no quantity are printed for this design; the page prints no cotton number beside either the centre square or the border. Nothing has been carried over from the neighbouring plates.
• Modernisation note: SCOPE — this entry is the BORDER only. The bedspread's centre square is printed on the same page but stops after three rows at “repeat from * then follow design”, the design being Plate 15, a squared filet chart. The square is therefore not transcribed; the border, which is printed in full in words on printed pages 14 and 15, is.
• Modernisation note: The book's filet terms are its own: “blk” is its block, “sp” its space, both defined on page 2 and quoted above. Its “tr tr” is the triple treble, thread over three times. The blocks and spaces are worked in trebles here because the border's own row 1 says so (“Tr in fourth stitch from end”), even though the book's page-2 definitions of block and space are written in double crochet.
• Modernisation note: Check: rows 3 and 5 print “Ch 8, tr in 5th st from end” to start a row, and rows 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, 17, 19 and 21 print “Ch 8” alone. That is the printed turning chain and it is kept, though it is taller than the trebles it stands for.
• Modernisation note: Check: the scan reads “ch 8” in several places inside rows where the page image reads ch 3 (rows 7, 11, 15 and 19 in particular); the page image has been followed. The row-opening “Ch 8” really is 8 on the page.
• Modernisation note: Check: rows 1 to 6 use the book's phrasing “till there are 6 blks, 4 sps” — a running total for the rest of the row, not a repeat count. That is the book's own shorthand and is kept.
• Modernisation note: Check: row 18 ends “ch 5, 3 sc over 5 sc, 1 blk, 1 sp, 1 blk, turn”, omitting the second ch 5 that every comparable row prints. The page image shows the same omission.
• Modernisation note: Check: the closing direction is the book's: from the twenty-second row the worker reverses the printed rows to finish each diamond. The book does not print the reversed rows out, and they have not been written out here.
• Modernisation note: Check: the book does not say how many diamonds the border needs or how it is joined to the spread.