Child's Coat Sweater in Star Stitch (1918): vintage crochet pattern

Materials

• Light (CYC #3) wool yarn — the original was Germantown wool, cream-white or any color (quantity not printed)
• Crochet hook (original: bone hook size 4)
• Buttons to suit the garment
• Tapestry needle
• Hook: Start with 4 mm (US G-6) — approximate, as the 1918 "size 4" bone hook has no printed diameter; change size to fit (no gauge is printed)

Abbreviations (US terms)

ch

chain

sc

single crochet

sk

skip

st

stitch

sts

stitches

rep

repeat

row

row

rnd

round

inc

increase

yo

yarn over

lp

loop

BLO

back loop only

sl st

slip stitch

RS

right side

WS

wrong side

Notes before you start

• Source: "Child's Coat Sweater", Handbook of Wool Knitting and Crochet, Needlecraft Publishing Company, Augusta, Maine, 1918. Public domain in the USA.
• As printed — materials: Use Germantown wool, cream-white or any color desired, and bone hook size 4, or a hook large enough to carry the wool 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: The book's turning rule ("one chain-stitch corresponds to a double, two chain-stitches to a half or short treble, three chain to a treble") means ch 1 = sc height and ch 3 = dc height in modern terms. Turning chains are kept exactly as printed, even where they do not follow that rule.
• 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: "Rib" is the book's word for two rows of back-loop sc ("working across twice"); it is kept.
• Modernisation note: "Perpendicular loop" written as "vertical lp".
• Modernisation note: "Join ... with single crochet" converted by the book's own definition (single crochet = modern sl st).
• Modernisation note: Check: the book does not say at which edge the shorter rows of 39 stars sit; presumably they run from the lower edge, leaving the upper part of the strip plain for the armhole. Left as printed.
• Modernisation note: Check: Row 1 prints no skipped chain before the first sc. Left as printed.