Opera Cap with Roses and Seed Pods (1915): vintage crochet pattern

Materials

• Size 20 mercerized cotton crochet thread in any colour — approximate; the book prints only “No. 20 thread”
• Fine silver or gold tinsel thread, to run in with the main thread (optional; the book offers it)
• Steel crochet hook (original: No. 9 hook)
• Narrow gold, silver or velvet band, for across the front
• Tapestry needle
• Hook: Start with 1.4 mm (US steel 9) — approximate; change size so that the finished cap draws up to the head measurement on its runner chain

Abbreviations (US terms)

ch

chain

sl st

slip stitch

sc

single crochet

dc

double crochet

tr

treble crochet

st

stitch

sts

stitches

rnd

round

row

row

rep

repeat

sk

skip

lp

loop

FO

fasten off

Notes before you start

• Source: "Opera Cap", 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: May be made of any colored thread with tinsel silver or gold thread run in with other thread; No. 20 thread; No. 9 hook; A band of gold, silver or velvet across front. 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: 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 each circuit a “row”; all three pieces are worked in the round and joined, so they are written Round here, keeping the book's numbering.
• Modernisation note: Check: Seed Pods Round 4 reads “14tr over 14tr drawn off 4tr at a time at top”, then “Run hook through all sts at top”. Fourteen does not divide by four, so the last group takes only 2 dc. The printed page may read “all 3sts” at that point — the scan is not certain — so count the groups you actually have at the top and run the hook through all of them.
• Modernisation note: Check: the Rose says only “until rose is as large as desired” and gives the increase (9, 11, 13 dc per scallop). No final round count is printed, so the size is the maker's choice; the photograph shows a rose of about four rounds of scallops.
• Modernisation note: Check: the runner chain is printed only as “make runner ch around edge to make it fit the head” — no chain count and no stitch count are given, so run it in through the last round of loops and draw it up on the head.
• Modernisation note: Check: the number of roses is not printed. The book says a rose catches each end of the front band, and the photograph shows one rose at the front with the seed pods hanging from it.
• Modernisation note: The colour is deliberately open: the book says the cap may be made of any coloured thread with silver or gold tinsel run in.
• Modernisation note: Finishing lines (fastening off, weaving in ends, sewing on the trimming) added; the front band line is the book's own.
• Modernisation note: Metric conversions added.