Child's Star-Stitch Jacket (1918): vintage crochet pattern

Materials

• Super fine (CYC #1) wool yarn — the original was Saxony, 3 skeins cream-white and 1 skein blue or pink
• Crochet hook
• Ribbon matching the contrast color, or cord and tassels of white and color, for the neck
• Tapestry needle
• Hook: Start with 3 mm (US C-2/D-3) — approximate; change size to fit (no gauge or measurement is printed)

Abbreviations (US terms)

ch

chain

sc

single crochet

dc

double crochet

st

stitch

sts

stitches

sp

space

rep

repeat

row

row

rnd

round

inc

increase

yo

yarn over

lp

loop

sl st

slip stitch

Notes before you start

• Source: "Child's 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 cream-white Saxony and one skein of blue or pink, with a bone hook of suitable size to carry the yarn smoothly.. 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: This design uses "stars" without defining them; the book's own star-stitch definition, printed with its Child's Coat Sweater, is copied as the first step (with "doubles" written as "sts").
• Modernisation note: "Fasten in space between trebles" (Row 30) written as "sl st in the space between dc".
• Modernisation note: Line: listed with baby garments because it is a small Saxony jacket; the book gives no age.
• Modernisation note: Check: "widen" in star stitch is not explained; at the border corners the book makes "2 stars as if to widen", so an increase is presumably 2 stars worked over the same place. Left as printed.
• Modernisation note: Check: Row 10 prints 11 stars on each 22-ch underarm chain, but sleeve Rnd 1 prints 9 stars on that chain. Left as printed.
• Modernisation note: Check: the copied star definition starts on a row of stitches; here Row 1 is worked directly on the foundation chain. Pick up the loops in the chains the same way.