Egyptian Centerpiece with Lotus Flowers (1915): vintage crochet pattern

Materials

• Size 20 mercerized cotton crochet thread — approximate; the book prints only “No. 20 thread”
• Steel crochet hook (original: No. 10 hook)
• Linen circle, 20 in (about 51 cm) finished, with a rolled or plain hem
• Sewing thread and a fine needle, to sew the foundation chain to the linen
• Hook: Start with 1.3 mm (US steel 10) — approximate; change size so that the foundation chain of 845 sits flat around the 20 in (about 51 cm) linen center

Abbreviations (US terms)

ch

chain

sl st

slip stitch

sc

single crochet

hdc

half double crochet

dc

double crochet

tr

treble crochet

dtr

double treble crochet

st

stitch

sts

stitches

rnd

round

row

row

rep

repeat

sk

skip

sp

space

ch-sp

chain space

yo

yarn over

FO

fasten off

Notes before you start

• Source: "Egyptian Centerpiece", Jewel Crochet Book: A Collection of Unique and Useful Designs with Full Working Instructions, Miller-Clark Designing Company, St. Joseph, Missouri, 1915. Public domain in the USA.
• As printed — materials: No. 20 thread; No. 10 hook; Linen center 20 inches finished, with rolled or plain hem. Gauge: Not given.
• Modernisation note: Stitches converted by the book's own printed stitch key (“Key to Terms Used in this Book”), not by name — this book uses the older British-style naming, so its names do not mean what the same names mean today. Chain (ch) = ch. Slip stitch (slst), hook through a stitch, draw a stitch through that and the loop on the hook without throwing thread over = sl st. “Double” (d), hook through the work, draw a stitch through making two on the hook, thread over and draw through both = modern single crochet (sc). “Half treble” (htr), thread over, hook through, draw a stitch through, thread over and draw through all three = modern half double crochet (hdc). “Treble” (tr), thread over, hook through, draw a stitch through making three on the hook, then work off two and two = modern double crochet (dc). “Double treble” (dtr), thread over twice and cast off three times, two and two and two = modern treble (tr). “Triple treble” (ttr), thread over three times and cast off four times = modern double treble (dtr). So every printed tr becomes dc here, every printed dtr becomes tr, and every printed ttr becomes dtr.
• Modernisation note: Picot (p) is the book's own: chain 3, 4 or 5 as you like, then insert the hook in the first of those chains, thread over and draw through the chain stitch and the stitch on the hook at once (a slip stitch). It is written “picot” in full throughout, with the book's chain count wherever one is printed, because there is no picot abbreviation in this site's abbreviation list. Triple picot (tp) is the book's “three picots in succession”.
• Modernisation note: The book's shorthand is written out in modern US form: ch = ch, sl-st = sl st, d = sc, htr = hdc, tr = dc, dtr = tr, ttr = dtr, st(s) = st(s), R = Row or Round, j = join (with a slip stitch), bet = between, m (mesh) = the chain-1 space of the mesh ground, “miss” = sk, “thread over hook” = yo, “* all around” / “* from **” = rep from *. Ordinal row names (“1st R.”, “2nd R.”) are written Row 1, Row 2, or Round 1, Round 2 where the piece is worked in the round; where the book calls a circuit of a circular piece a “row”, the round reading is given in the heading and the change is noted.
• Modernisation note: The book prints each design as one unbroken paragraph; it is split here into one row, round or step per line, with stitch order and counts unchanged. Section headings in bold in the book (Rose, Seed Pods, Crown, Edge, and so on) are kept; any other heading is added for navigation and named as added.
• Modernisation note: Thread is printed only as a number (“No. 60 thread”, “No. 20 thread”) with no brand and no yardage anywhere in the book. The modern equivalents given are approximations only: a size 60 or size 20 mercerized cotton crochet thread of the same size number. No yardage is printed for any design in this book, so none is given here.
• Modernisation note: Hooks are printed only as steel hook numbers (No. 9, No. 10, No. 11) with no diameters, so no exact metric size can be read from the book. The metric sizes given are approximate starting points read across to the modern US steel-hook scale, on which a higher number is finer; work a swatch and change hook size to match any printed measurement.
• Modernisation note: No stitch gauge is printed for any design in this book; work a swatch and match any printed measurement before starting.
• Modernisation note: The printed page is the authority for this transcription; every row was read from the page image, because the scanned text of this book is unusually broken. Where a digit could genuinely be read two ways it is flagged in a Check note below rather than guessed at.
• Modernisation note: The book calls every stage a “row”, whether it goes round the piece or back and forth. Circuits are written Round here and back-and-forth stages are written Row, following the word “turn” where the book prints it; the numbering is the book's own and is unchanged.
• Modernisation note: The long picot treble the book invents and names Ltrp is left under its own name, because it is defined in full in the Open Row and used only there.
• Modernisation note: The book's “m” (mesh) is the chain-1 space of the mesh ground; it is written mesh in full.
• Modernisation note: Check: Round 5 reads “making 31tr”. Worked over 4 of the 15-chain loops at (ch 1, dc) per 2 sts, the count comes out close but not exactly, so count to 31 dc and adjust at the ends of the span rather than at the tr.
• Modernisation note: Check: the Lotus Flower Row 2 reads “12tr over 12 htr” where Row 1 made 13 hdc. Read as printed: the 12 dc fall over 12 of the 13 hdc, and the last is taken by the sc in the mesh at the end.
• Modernisation note: Check: the foundation chain of 845 sts is printed for a 20-inch linen center; the book then gives 420 dc and 420 meshes as the count to hold to. If the chain does not lie flat on your linen, change the hook rather than the chain count.
• Modernisation note: Check: the colour is not printed; the centerpiece photographs as white on white linen.
• Modernisation note: Finishing lines (fastening off, weaving in ends, checking the sewing, blocking) added.
• Modernisation note: Metric conversions added.