Babies' Crossed-Stitch Jacket (1918): vintage crochet pattern

Materials

• Super fine (CYC #1) wool yarn — the original was Saxony yarn, 3 skeins
• Fine silk-finish (mercerized) crochet cotton or silk thread for the edging, 1 spool
• 2½ yd (2.3 m) of narrow ribbon (original: No. 1 ribbon)
• Crochet hook
• Tapestry needle
• Hook: Start with 3 mm (US C-2/D-3) — approximate; Row 1 stitches are drawn up to about ⅝ in (1.5 cm), which is a useful check (no gauge is printed)

Abbreviations (US terms)

ch

chain

sc

single crochet

dc

double crochet

sk

skip

st

stitch

sts

stitches

sp

space

rep

repeat

row

row

rnd

round

inc

increase

sl st

slip stitch

lp

loop

Notes before you start

• Source: "Babies' Jacket", Handbook of Wool Knitting and Crochet, Needlecraft Publishing Company, Augusta, Maine, 1918. Public domain in the USA.
• As printed — materials: Materials required are three skeins of Saxony yarn, one spool silk-finished crochet-cotton or crochet-silk, and two and one-half yards of No. 1 ribbon. Use a hook which will carry the yarn easily.. Gauge: Not given.
• Modernisation note: Stitches converted by the book's own definitions ("A Lesson in Crochet"), not by name. The book uses the older names it calls "in general use", which are one step taller in name than modern US terms: its single crochet ("insert hook in work, take up the thread and draw it through the work and the stitch on the needle at the same time") = modern US sl st; its double (draw through, "giving you two stitches on the needle; take up thread and draw through the two") = sc; half-treble or short-treble = hdc; treble (thread over, insert, draw through, then through two loops twice) = dc; double-treble (thread over twice) = tr; triple-treble (thread over three times) = dtr. Its slip-stitch (drop the loop, insert the hook where you wish to join, pull the dropped loop through) is a joining stitch and is written as "join" or sl st. So every "double" in the original is written here as sc and every "treble" as dc.
• Modernisation note: Period wording modernised: "miss" written as sk; "widen" as inc; "narrow" as dec; "vein" of a stitch as loop ("back vein" = back loop only, "both veins" = both loops); "take up thread/wool" and "over" as yo; "needle" (the crochet hook) as hook; "wool"/"thread" as yarn; "fasten in" as join yarn; "break and fasten wool" as fasten off; "fasten"/"catch" (to a stitch) as sl st; "armscye" as armhole; "repeat" as rep; numbered rows written as Row/Rnd n.
• Modernisation note: Long printed paragraphs split into one row, round or step per line; stitch order and counts unchanged. Section headings added for navigation.
• Modernisation note: The book gives almost no hook sizes (one design names "bone hook size 4"); otherwise it says to use a hook "large enough to carry the yarn", and explains that "no two manufacturers use like numbers for the same sizes". The modern hook given is an approximate starting point for the yarn weight only.
• Modernisation note: No stitch gauge is printed for any crocheted design in the book; work a swatch and match any printed lengths (given in the modern gauge line) before starting.
• Modernisation note: 1918 yarn names have no exact modern equivalent. Approximate modern CYC weights used: fourfold (4-fold) Germantown wool/zephyr/worsted as light (CYC #3); knitting-worsted as medium (CYC #4); Shetland floss (a soft, lofty yarn) as fine (CYC #2); 2-fold Shetland zephyr as fine (CYC #2); Saxony as super fine (CYC #1); eiderdown wool and "very heavy Germantown worsted" as medium (CYC #4); Angora wool is a fluffy trim yarn used with worsted. The book gives skeins, hanks or balls only — never yardage or skein weight — so no yardage is given.
• Modernisation note: Sizes are given only loosely (e.g. "child", "three years"); vintage sizing and ease differ from today's — compare the printed lengths with a garment that fits before starting.
• Modernisation note: "Plain" is the book's word for a row of dc (3 over each cross) and is kept.
• Modernisation note: Shell row "miss 3, fasten, miss 3" written as "sk 3, sl st in next, sk 3".
• Modernisation note: The printed counts check: Row 3 totals 114 dc = 38 crosses; Row 5, 144 = 48; Row 7, 174 = 58; Row 9, 108 = 36; Row 11, 120 = 40.
• Modernisation note: Check: the silk edge prints "double in double between shells", but the shells are fastened with a joining stitch, not a double; "sc in the st between shells" is used. Otherwise as printed.
• Modernisation note: Check: "1 treble back to where you fastened in" describes the first cross; later crosses presumably go back into the stitch skipped by the previous pair. Left as printed.
• Modernisation note: Metric conversions added.