Plate Eleven Coronation Braid Edging (1915): vintage crochet pattern

Materials

• Coronation braid (still sold; the original names no width)
• Size 30 mercerized cotton crochet thread — approximate; no thread size is printed for this design
• Steel crochet hook — no hook is printed for this design
• Tapestry needle
• Hook: Start with 1.3 mm (US steel 9) — approximate and not printed; the booklet's own table pairs cotton size 30 with its hook 8 or 9. Change size until the edging lies flat against the braid.

Abbreviations (US terms)

ch

chain

sc

single crochet

dc

double crochet

tr

treble crochet

st

stitch

sts

stitches

sp

space

rep

repeat

row

row

Notes before you start

• Source: "Plate Eleven" (Plate Eleven), The Eagle's Call to Crochet, Pratt and Farmer Co., Notion Specialists, New York City, 1915. Public domain in the USA.
• As printed — materials: Coronation Braid. Gauge: Not given.
• Modernisation note: Stitches follow this booklet's own printed key, not the stitch names alone. The abbreviation table is on book page 5 and the worked definitions are on book pages 6 and 7, and they define MODERN US terms: “Single Crochet” — put the needle through the stitch, thread over needle, pull through, thread over needle again, pull through both loops (the modern US sc); “Double Crochet” — thread over needle first, then put the needle through the work, thread over and pull through, showing three stitches on the needle, thread over and pull through two loops, thread over again and draw through the remaining two (the modern US dc); “Half Double Crochet” — thread over, through the work, pull through, thread over, pull through all three loops (the modern US hdc); “Triple or Treble Crochet” — wind thread over the needle twice, insert, pull through showing four stitches on the needle, then cast off two at a time three times (the modern US tr). Because the key is already modern US, NO stitch conversion was needed anywhere in this transcription. The booklet's spelled-out forms map straight across: “s cr” = sc, “d cr” = dc, “tr cr” and “tc” = tr. This matters because several 1915 US books use the older British heights; this one does not.
• Modernisation note: The booklet's shorthand is written in modern US form: ch = ch, s cr / sc = sc, d cr / dc = dc, tr cr / tc = tr, st(s) = st(s), sp = sp, p = picot, mtf / mf = motif, and “r to c” = return to centre (the printed table on book page 5 gives “rtoc return to center”). Ordinal row names (“First row”, “Second row”) are written Row 1, Row 2 and so on. The booklet punctuates with long dashes between every instruction; those are written as ordinary sentence punctuation here, with no change to stitch order or count.
• Modernisation note: Long printed paragraphs are split into one row, round or step per line; stitch order and counts are unchanged. Section headings added for navigation.
• Modernisation note: No thread size and no hook are printed for this design. The booklet names Eagle Cordonnet sizes 1, 2, 20, 30 and 100 for the designs where it names one at all, so the size suggested in the modern materials is ours and is a starting point only.
• Modernisation note: The booklet prints a cotton-to-hook table on book page 10: cotton size 1 takes hook 2; size 2, hook 3; size 3, hook 4 or 5; size 5, hook 6; size 10, hook 7; size 20, hook 8; size 30, hook 8 or 9; size 40, hook 9; size 50, hook 9 or 10; size 60, hook 10 or 11; size 70, hook 11 or 12; size 80, hook 12 or 13; size 100, hook 13 or 14. These are the booklet's own steel-hook numbers with no diameters given, so the metric sizes below are approximate read-across to the modern US steel scale, in which a higher number is finer. Work a swatch and change size to match the photograph.
• Modernisation note: No gauge is printed for this design — the booklet prints no gauge anywhere. Work a swatch and change hook size until the work lies flat and matches the photograph.
• Modernisation note: Finishing follows the booklet's own instruction on book pages 9 and 10: at the completion of the piece make an extra chain stitch and cut the thread so as to leave a one-inch end, then draw that end in and out where it does not show until the end is used up.
• Modernisation note: The booklet is a thread advertisement and names its own brand in almost every line of materials. The brand name is dropped here and only the thread size is kept, which is the part that carries pattern information.
• Modernisation note: Picot is the booklet's own, described on book pages 7 and 8: chain four and catch the last stitch into the first with a single crochet stitch. It is written as “picot” wherever the original writes it, with no chain count added, because the original does not repeat one at each picot in this design.
• Modernisation note: The booklet numbers the top and lower edges separately, both starting again at “Second row”, because they are worked out from the same Row 1 along the braid. That numbering is kept, with “(top)” and “(bottom)” added so the two sequences can be told apart.
• Modernisation note: The very long printed paragraphs of Row 2 (top), Row 2 (bottom) and Row 3 (bottom) are split where the pattern unit repeats. No stitch, chain count or order is changed.
• Modernisation note: Check: Row 3 (bottom) ends in the original with “1 tr cr into same center, etc.” The repeat is unambiguous here because the full scallop unit is written out once and then begun a second time before the “etc.”, so the transcription carries it to that point and then states the repeat.
• Modernisation note: Check: the original's Row 2 (bottom) prints “— ch, 1 d cr into center of next ch of 9” at one point with the chain count dropped by the printer. Every other bar in that row is ch 5, so it is read as ch 5 here.
• Modernisation note: Check: “Take hook out of work. Put needle through…” uses “needle” for the crochet hook, as the booklet does throughout; it is written as hook.
• Modernisation note: Check: no colour is printed; the design is photographed in white against a black ground. The booklet notes that Eagle Cordonnet was also sold in colours in sizes 30 and 70.
• Modernisation note: No finished measurement is printed for this design.