Plate Doily with Novelty Braid (1915): vintage crochet pattern

Materials

• Size 30 mercerized cotton crochet thread (original: size 30)
• Novelty braid — a lace braid with a picot-edged leaf repeat; the original names no width
• Linen circle 5½ inches (14 cm) in diameter, edge rolled and hemmed
• Steel crochet hook (original: No. 13 needle)
• Tapestry needle
• Hook: Start with 0.85 mm (US steel 13) — approximate; the original prints needle No. 13. Change size until the bars sit evenly in the linen and the ground lies flat.

Abbreviations (US terms)

ch

chain

sc

single crochet

dc

double crochet

st

stitch

sts

stitches

lp

loop

rnd

round

rep

repeat

Notes before you start

• Source: "Plate Doily (Plate 15)" (Plate Fifteen), The Eagle's Call to Crochet, Pratt and Farmer Co., Notion Specialists, New York City, 1915. Public domain in the USA.
• As printed — materials: Eagle Cordonnet, size 30; Novelty Braid; Linen circle, diameter 5½ inches; Crochet needle No. 13. 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: 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: The original calls every circuit a “row” although the doily is worked in the round; these are written Rnd, and the change is noted here rather than silently made.
• Modernisation note: Check: the original's edge reads “4 stitches—pearl 4—4 stitches into next loop.” “Pearl 4” is read as a picot of 4 chains, matching the booklet's own picot on book pages 7 and 8 and the picot edge visible in the photograph. The original word is kept in this note because the reading is ours.
• Modernisation note: Check: the original does not say which stitch the edge's “4 stitches” are. The photograph shows a close, short stitch, which would be single crochet, but the booklet does not print it, so the row is left as “4 stitches”.
• Modernisation note: Check: the materials print size 30 cotton with needle No. 13, but the booklet's own table on book page 10 pairs size 30 with hook 8 or 9, and pairs hook 13 with size 100. The printed No. 13 is kept as the original, and the discrepancy is flagged rather than corrected — work a swatch before committing.
• Modernisation note: Check: the OCR reads the linen circle as “53 inches”; the page image plainly prints 5½ inches, and that is the figure used.
• Modernisation note: The “Center Piece” is printed as a two-line variation of the same directions rather than as a separate design, and it is transcribed here as a section of this pattern for that reason.
• Modernisation note: The pressing step follows the booklet's own “Pressing” instruction on book page 33.
• 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.