Torchon Edging (1891): vintage crochet pattern

Materials

• Crochet cotton — the book prints no size; the section's own general remarks name white, unbleached and écru crochet cotton and linen thread
• Steel crochet hook to suit the thread
• Tapestry needle for the ends
• Hook: Check: the book prints no hook number for any design in this section, so no modern hook can be read across from a printed size. Match the hook to whatever thread you choose, and change size until the edging lies flat.

Abbreviations (US terms)

ch

chain

dc

double crochet

st

stitch

sts

stitches

rep

repeat

sk

skip

sp

space

row

row

Notes before you start

• Source: "Torchon Edging", The Art of Crocheting, The Butterick Publishing Co. (Limited), London and New York, 1891. Public domain in the USA.
• As printed — materials: Not printed — the book names no thread, thread number, hook number or brand for the designs in this section.. Gauge: Not given.
• Modernisation note: Stitches are converted by this book's own printed definitions (the STITCHES section, book pages 6, 7 and 8, images p-010.jpg and p-011.jpg), not by the look of the abbreviation. Despite the 1891 date this book uses MODERN US names throughout. Its “Single Crochet” (No. 8, page 6) is: “Draw a loop through a stitch of the foundation; throw the thread over the hook and draw through both loops on the hook at once.” That is the modern US single crochet. Its “Double Crochet” (No. 6, page 6) is: “Throw the thread over the hook and take up a loop through a stitch of the foundation; throw the thread over again and draw through two of the three loops now on the hook; throw the thread over once more, and draw through the two remaining loops.” That is the modern US double crochet, not a single. Its “Half-Double Crochet” (page 7) is: “Throw the thread over the hook and take up a stitch of the foundation or work; throw the thread over again, and draw through all three loops on the hook together.” That is the modern US half double. Its “Treble Crochet” (page 7) is: “made the same as double crochet, except that the thread is thrown around the hook twice before the foundation stitch is taken up; and in working off, the thread is thrown over the hook three times, being drawn through two stitches each time as before.” That is the modern US treble. Its “Slip Stitch” (No. 5, page 6) is: “After a foundation is made insert the hook in each stitch and draw the thread through it and loop on the hook together.” So this book's s. c., d. c., h. d. c. and tr. c. are written sc, dc, hdc and tr here with no shift of height — a genuine finding checked against the printed definitions rather than assumed from the date, and the opposite of what the 1913/1915/1916 Priscilla books do.
• Modernisation note: The book repeats the key as an abbreviation table at the head of the section these designs come from, “ABBREVIATIONS USED IN CROCHET INSTRUCTIONS”, book page 16 (image p-020.jpg): “l. — Loop. ch. st. — Chain stitch. s. c. — Single crochet. d. c. — Double crochet. h. d. c. — Half double crochet. tr. c. — Treble crochet. p. — Picot. sl. st. — Slip stitch.” The book adds that it has “avoided resorting to its use as far as possible, in order that our instructions may be as clear to the beginner as to the adept”, which is why most designs here spell the stitches out in words and only a few use the letters. Both forms are written in modern shorthand in the rows below.
• Modernisation note: The book's wording is written in modern US form: “make” a chain = ch; “catch” = sl st or join, according to what the row is doing; “throw the thread over the hook” = yo; “pick up a loop” = pull up a loop; “skip” = sk; “needle” and “hook” both mean the hook and are written hook; “underneath” means the previous row and is kept; “repeat from *” = rep from *. Ordinal row names (“First row.”, “Second row.”, “Third row.”) are written Row 1, Row 2, Row 3. The book's spelling “scollop” is kept in the design names as printed and written scallop in the rows.
• Modernisation note: The printed directions run as solid paragraphs, most of them without any row numbering at all — the book marks new rows only with the word “turn”. They are split here into one row or step per line at the book's own “turn”, and the book's own sub-headings (For the Heading, For the Lower Edge, To make the Picots, To make the Scollop and so on) are kept as section headings. Stitch order and counts are unchanged and nothing is added.
• Modernisation note: The scanned text of this 1891 book carries the usual optical-reading slips and every figure below was read back against the page image: the scan's “Toth” is 16th, its “gth” is 4th or 9th according to the sequence, its “roth” is 10th, its “Sth” is 8th, its “§” before a number is the figure 5, its “ting” is ring, its “neat” and “nevt” are next, its “1g ch.” is 14 ch., its “chain of 4g ©” is a chain of 9, and its “t” and “+” standing before a stitch name are the figure 1. The rows below follow what the printed page actually shows.
• Modernisation note: No materials are printed for this design. The edgings section of this book names no thread, no thread number, no hook number and no brand for any of its designs — it is a technique book, not a thread-maker's pamphlet, and it was sold at “FIFTY CENTS OR TWO SHILLINGS” rather than given away with thread. The only material guidance printed anywhere near these pages is general: book page 21 says “Unbleached or écru crochet cotton makes very” handsome lace, and book page 36 suggests “moderately coarse unbleached crochet cotton or linen” for insertions. Nothing is invented here to fill the gap.
• Modernisation note: No gauge is printed for this design; the book prints no gauge, tension or mesh count anywhere. Work a sample and change hook size until the edging lies flat.
• Modernisation note: No finished measurement is printed for this design. It is worked to the length of the piece it trims, so its length is set by that piece.
• Modernisation note: Check: no colour is printed for this design. The engravings photograph as a plain light thread. The book's general remarks name white, unbleached and écru crochet cotton and linen thread as the usual choices for its laces; that is recorded here as the book's own range, not as this design's colour.
• Modernisation note: No yardage is printed for this design, and none is estimated here — the book gives no thread size to estimate from.
• Modernisation note: Check: the OCR reads “Make 3 double crochets in the Sth, 9th and roth stitches”; the page image reads 8th, 9th and 10th.
• Modernisation note: Check: the OCR reads “repeat § times more from *”; the page image reads 5 times.
• Modernisation note: The book prints this design under the heading “TORCHON EDGING. (No Illustration.)” — there is no photograph of it. It is transcribed here because its rows are printed in full; the separate numbered No. 32 Torchon Edging on book page 37 is a plate entry and is skipped.
• Modernisation note: The book's phrase “repeat next 2 rows of heading” refers back to its own previous two rows; that is kept as printed rather than expanded, because the book does not print which two it means in any other words.