Plate Seven Joined Fan Edging (1915): vintage crochet pattern

Materials

• 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 fans lie flat and match the photograph.

Abbreviations (US terms)

ch

chain

sc

single crochet

tr

treble crochet

st

stitch

sts

stitches

lp

loop

rep

repeat

row

row

Notes before you start

• Source: "Plate Seven" (Plate Seven), The Eagle's Call to Crochet, Pratt and Farmer Co., Notion Specialists, New York City, 1915. Public domain in the USA.
• As printed — materials: Not given. 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: The booklet writes the treble as “tr cr” in this design and defines it on book page 7 as the modern US treble, so it is written tr throughout with no change of height.
• Modernisation note: Row 3 is printed as one running paragraph; it is split into the covering of the chain arcs and the making of the next fan's centre loop, because those are two distinct actions. No stitch or count is changed.
• Modernisation note: Check: the OCR of the second fan's first row reads “I6 tr cr into loop”, but the page image plainly prints 18, and 18 tr plus the ch-4 is the “19 in all” the same sentence states. The transcribed rows use 18; the excerpt below is left exactly as the OCR has it elsewhere.
• Modernisation note: Check: the booklet says only “join ch to make loop” and does not name the joining stitch. A slip stitch is the usual reading, but the booklet does not print it, so the row is left as “join the chain to make a loop”.
• Modernisation note: Check: the joining of the third and later fans is followed by “(See illustration)” in the original, so the exact overlap is meant to be read from the photograph as well as the text.
• 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.