A Crochet Cosy Cover: vintage crochet pattern

Materials

• Size 40 white cotton crochet thread in place of the book's Ardern's No. 40 crochet cotton — ours, read across by thread number
• A fine steel hook to suit the thread
• Narrow ribbon to thread up the finished cover, as the book directs
• Hook: Start with about 1.25 mm (US steel 8) — ours, approximate. The book prints no hook for this design. Change size until the fabric is firm and even.

Abbreviations (US terms)

ch

chain

sc

single crochet

dc

double crochet

tr

treble crochet

sl st

slip stitch

sp

space

rep

repeat

row

row

lp

loop

pc

popcorn

st

stitch

Notes before you start

• Source: "A Crochet Cosy Cover", Beautiful Crochet on Household Linen (The Home Art Series, edited by Flora Klickmann), The Office of “The Girl's Own Paper & Woman's Magazine”, 4 Bouverie Street E.C., & 65 St. Paul's Churchyard, London. Public domain in the USA.
• As printed — materials: Work with Ardern's No. 40 Crochet Cotton.; Ribbon, to thread up the finished cover.. Gauge: Not given.
• Modernisation note: Stitches are converted by this book's own printed key and its own printed mesh arithmetic, not by stitch name. This is a BRITISH book. The naming key stands at the head of book page 81 (image p-088.jpg) under “Abbreviations used.” and reads: “Ch = chain ; d c = double crochet ; tr = treble ; S = solid mesh ; O = open mesh.” The book then prints its filet arithmetic at book page 12 (image p-020.jpg) and again at book page 29 (image p-037.jpg): “Each open mesh is made by working 2 ch, 1 tr over 3 ch, and each solid mesh by working 3 tr over 3 ch. Each row should be turned with 5 ch, if the first mesh is an open one, 3 ch if it is solid.” A solid mesh of 3 tr turned with 3 ch can only be built from a stitch three chains tall — the modern US double crochet; a US treble would have required 4 ch and 6 ch. Book page 51 (image p-059.jpg) then names the whole ladder in one breath — “3 d c, 3 l tr, 6 tr, 6 htr, 6 d c” — giving d c, htr, tr, l tr, which is the British ladder and maps onto the modern US sc, hdc, dc, tr; book page 59 works the classic Irish rose petal as “1 d c, 1 tr, 6 l tr, 1 tr, 1 d c”. The book's “s c”, the old British single crochet, is the flat catching-back and joining stitch and is written sl st. So here: d c = sc, htr = hdc, tr = dc, l tr = tr, s c = sl st, miss = sk.
• Modernisation note: Where the book numbers its rows it does so as “1st Row.”, “2nd Row.” and so on, often with the directions running as a solid paragraph across two columns. They are split here into one row or step per line and the ordinals are written Row 1, Row 2, Row 3. Where a heading introduces a fresh numbered sequence inside the same design, that sequence is kept under its own section heading exactly as the book groups it. Stitch order and counts are unchanged.
• Modernisation note: The scan of this book carries the usual optical-reading slips and every figure below was read back against the page image: the scan's “lst” and “Ist” are 1st, its “8rd” is 3rd, its “2Qnd” is 2nd, its “38rd” is 3rd, its “llth” is 11th, its “de” and “doe” and “dec” for a stitch are d c, its “ltr” is l tr, its “Ghtr” is 6 htr, its “ir” is tr, its “tims” and “turh” and “tiuith” are turn, its “Sanie” is Same, its “wotk” is work, its “miss3 ch” is miss 3 ch, and in the filet counts its “0” is the letter O and its “5” and “8” are frequently the letter S. These are scanning artefacts, not printed errors, and they are corrected silently in the rows; genuine PRINTED slips are a different matter and are always flagged with a “Check:” note instead of being quietly mended.
• Modernisation note: Hooks are printed only as period British maker's numbers (“a No. 44 Hook”) or not at all, with no diameters, and those numbers do not map onto the modern scale. Any metric size given in the modern materials is ours and is a starting point only.
• Modernisation note: No gauge, tension or stitch-per-inch figure is printed for this design, or for any design in this book. Work a sample and change hook size to suit the thread.
• Modernisation note: No yardage is estimated. The book never prints a ball length, a reel length or a quantity for any design — it names a thread and sometimes a hook and nothing more — so there is no printed basis for a yardage figure and none is invented here.
• Modernisation note: Thread brands are listed exactly as printed. Ardern's, Star Sylko, Peri-Lusta and Manlove's were the British cotton and linen brands the book's readers bought; the higher the number the finer the thread, on the same principle as modern crochet cotton sizing. Where the book names a size, that size is kept as printed.
• Modernisation note: The paper shape — 9 in. wide and 8 in. deep — is the book's own printed measurement and is the only measurement it gives for this design. The metric conversion is ours.
• Modernisation note: The rose rows are where this book's stitch ladder shows itself most plainly: the petals are printed “1 d c, 1 tr, 6 l tr, 1 tr, 1 d c”, the classic Irish rose petal, which converts to sc, dc, 6 tr, dc, sc. The medium rose's printed direction to work “tr instead of l tr” therefore becomes “dc instead of tr” here, which is why that line reads as it does.
• Modernisation note: Check: the book prints “sew nine roses” on each side of a three-piece cover — 1 large, 3 medium and 5 small make nine per side, twenty-seven in all across the three pieces. The arithmetic is the book's; the total is not printed and is not asserted above.
• Modernisation note: Check: the book gives no stitch count for the tapered open-mesh ground, only the paper shape and the make-up of the mesh. Nothing is supplied.