Medallion in Irish Lace (1916): vintage crochet pattern

Materials

• Size 30 to size 80 mercerized cotton crochet thread — approximate; the original was O. N. T. Crochet & Tatting Cotton Nos. 30 to 80, and the book gives the range rather than one number
• Steel crochet hook
• Tapestry needle for the ends
• Hook: The book prints Crochet Hooks Nos. 8 to 14 for this range of threads, which on its own page-41 table pairs with cottons Nos. 30 to 100. In modern terms that is roughly 1.25 mm down to 0.75 mm — approximate and ours. Pick the hook to match the thread chosen and change size until the square lies flat.

Abbreviations (US terms)

ch

chain

sl st

slip stitch

sc

single crochet

dc

double crochet

ps

puff stitch

st

stitch

sts

stitches

rep

repeat

sk

skip

sp

space

row

row

lp

loop

Notes before you start

• Source: "Medallion in Irish Lace", Clark's O. N. T. Book of Needlework, The Clark Thread Company, Newark, New Jersey, 1916. Public domain in the USA.
• As printed — materials: O. N. T. Crochet & Tatting Cotton Nos. 30 to 80; Crochet Hooks Nos. 8 to 14. Gauge: Not given.
• Modernisation note: Stitches are converted by this book's own key, read for this book and not assumed from the brand or the year. The abbreviation list is printed on book page 41 under “Abbreviations Used in Crocheting” — “st = stitch; ch = chain stitch; sl st = slip stitch; sc = single crochet; dc = double crochet; tr c = treble crochet; p = picot; d = dot; w st = wound stitch; m = meshes”, with a star that “Means to repeat directions printed between them as many times as stated in each case.” The stitches are then defined in words on book page 42: Single Crochet — “Insert the hook in the foundation chain and draw thread through, catch thread around hook and draw through both loops on hook”, the modern US single crochet; Double Crochet — “Catch thread around hook, insert in chain, draw thread through; catch thread around hook, draw through two loops, thread around hook and draw through last two loops. Always start a d c row with 3 ch in place of the first dc”, the modern US DOUBLE crochet; Treble Crochet — “The treble crochet is made similarly to the double crochet. Start with 4 ch and take thread twice over needle, drawing three times through two”, the modern US treble. So this 1916 book uses modern US heights and no re-lettering is needed: its dc is written dc and its tr c is written tr. This matters because the same firm's 1923 Book No. 19 does the opposite, printing “D c” for a modern half double and “Tr” for a modern double; the two books were checked separately and do not agree.
• Modernisation note: The book's wording is written in modern US form: “needle” and “hook” both mean the hook and are written hook; “thread over needle” = yo; “skip” = sk; “catch”/“fasten” at the end of a circuit = sl st or join, according to what the row is doing; the book's star ★ is written * and “repeat from ★” = rep from *; tr c = tr; sh st = shell stitch. The OCR of this scan prints the ordinal “1st” as “Ist” and the letters c/e interchangeably in places (“de” for “dc”, “se” for “sc”); those quirks are kept in the excerpts and not in the rows.
• Modernisation note: The printed paragraphs are split into one row, round or step per line; stitch order and counts are unchanged. Section headings added for navigation. Ordinal row names (“1st row”, “2nd row”) are written Row 1, Row 2, and the book's word “row” is kept even where the work goes around, as the book itself does.
• Modernisation note: Clark's O. N. T. crochet cotton numbers are read as roughly equal to the modern crochet thread sizes of the same number — approximate only. The book's own Table of Cotton and Hook Sizes on book page 41 pairs Clark's O. N. T. Crochet Cotton Nos. 1, 3, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80 and 100 with Milward's Crochet Hooks Nos. 1 to 14 in that order, and that table is what ties each design's printed hook number to its printed thread.
• Modernisation note: The Milward's hook numbers printed here are 1916 maker's numbers and do not map onto the modern US steel scale, so any metric hook suggested below is ours, read across from the thread size and not printed in the book; the printed hook number is kept in the original materials. The book's own advice on page 41 is to test first: “it is wise to do a little experimenting with the cotton and needle in the sizes suggested in the directions in order to determine that the needle really is the correct size for each individual worker.”
• Modernisation note: No gauge is printed for this design. The book prints a stitch count per inch for its two filet yokes only, and those are the squared-diagram designs that are not transcribed here. Work a sample and change hook size until the work lies flat and matches the photograph.
• Modernisation note: No yardage is printed for this design. The book gives ball counts only for the baby jacket and cap, and no yardage anywhere, so none is estimated here.
• Modernisation note: Picot (p) is the book's own, defined on book page 42: “Make a chain of three or four st as indicated in directions; throw cotton over hook, insert hook into first ch st made and make a single crochet.” The chain count is kept wherever the design prints one.
• Modernisation note: No finished measurement is printed for this design.
• Modernisation note: Check: no colour is printed for this design. It photographs as a plain light thread, and the book's own O. N. T. Articles pages list Clark's O. N. T. crochet cottons in white and in colours.
• Modernisation note: The picot of this design is the book's own for this page — “ch 6, catch back to third (for picot)” — a chain-6 bar with the picot closed back into the third chain, and not the general page-42 picot. It is printed as its own line above the filling rows so the count is not lost.
• Modernisation note: Check: the book's own row numbering restarts at the filling — the rose runs Rows 1 to 8, then the filling begins again at its own first row. The two runs are kept in separate sections here rather than renumbered, so the printed numbers still match the book.
• Modernisation note: Check: the book prints no measurement for the square and no count of squares to make. It says only that squares like this “may be put to a number of different uses” and are effective in underwear and on lingerie pillows.
• Modernisation note: Check: the OCR prints the second asterisk of the filling's Row 3 as “*%&%” and “%%”, a double repeat mark. Read from image p-068.jpg there are two distinct repeat points in that row — an inner one across the mesh bar and an outer one for the whole group — and they are written * and ** above.
• Modernisation note: Check: the book names the thread as “O. N. T. Crochet & Tatting Cotton Nos. 30 to 80” and the hooks as “Nos. 8 to 14” — a range for both, not a single choice. The range is kept rather than narrowed to one number.