Baby Cap of Pop Corn Stitch, Plate 58 (1917): vintage crochet pattern

Materials

• Coarse mercerized crochet cotton, about size 3 to 5 — approximate; the original was J. & P. Coats “Silk Finish” Crochet Cotton (a coarse cotton; size and amount not printed), in white or colors
• Steel crochet hook
• Ribbon rosette and ties, as photographed (not listed in the book)
• Tapestry needle
• Hook: Start with a 1.75–2.25 mm (US steel 4 to B-1) hook — approximate; no hook is printed. Check the crown fits the baby's head.

Abbreviations (US terms)

ch

chain

sl st

slip stitch

sc

single crochet

dc

double crochet

tr

treble crochet

dtr

double treble crochet

pc

popcorn

st

stitch

sts

stitches

rep

repeat

row

row

lp

loop

Notes before you start

• Source: "Baby Cap of Pop Corn Stitch" (Plate 58), J. & P. Coats Crochet Book No. 2: A Book on General Crochet Work (designed by Anne Orr), J. & P. Coats, Pawtucket, R.I., 1917. Public domain in the USA.
• As printed — materials: J. & P. Coats “Silk Finish” Crochet Cotton, in white or colors. Gauge: Not given.
• Modernisation note: Stitches converted by the book's own stitch key, not by name: chain stitch (ch) = ch; slip stitch (sl st, “draw the working thread through this stitch and the loop on the needle with one motion”) = sl st; single stitch (s st, “draw the working thread through this stitch, making two on the needle, then draw the working thread through these two loops”) = modern sc; treble crochet (tr, thread around the needle once, loops drawn off two at a time twice; “three chains equal one treble”) = modern dc; double treble crochet (d tr, thread around twice, loops worked off two at a time for three repeats) = modern tr; triple treble crochet (tr tr, thread around three times, four repeats) = modern dtr. Picot (p) is “usually made by a chain of three or five, then a slip stitch in the first chain”. Shell (sh) is a group of stitches in halves separated by chains; “shell in shell” places each shell in the chain between the halves of the shell below. The book's 1917 treble names are one step taller than the modern US names, so every book tr is written dc, every d tr is written tr, every tr tr is written dtr, and every s st is written sc.
• Modernisation note: The book's abbreviations are written in modern US form: s st = sc, tr = dc, d tr = tr, tr tr = dtr, sl st = sl st, p = picot, sh = shell, sp = sp, st(s) = st(s), pc st = pc (popcorn); “needle” = hook; “skip” = sk; “repeat” = rep. Ordinal names (“2d Row”, “3d Row”) are written Row 2, Row 3; the book's word “Row” is kept even where the work goes around.
• Modernisation note: Long printed paragraphs are split into one row, round or step per line; stitch order and counts unchanged. Section headings added for navigation.
• Modernisation note: “Silk Finish” Crochet Cotton is a 1917 J. & P. Coats trade name; the book calls it “coarse cotton” but prints no size, so the modern size is an approximation only. No yardage is printed.
• Modernisation note: No hook is printed for this design. Elsewhere in the same book a Milward's steel crochet needle No. 12 is given for No. 80 cotton and No. 13 for No. 40 cotton; the suggested modern hook is an approximate starting point for the thread, not a printed size.
• Modernisation note: No gauge or finished measurement is printed; work a swatch with the chosen thread and hook.
• Modernisation note: The book's pop corn stitch definition is printed after the directions; it is placed first here. Its “9 tr” are modern dc.
• Modernisation note: The ring round is unnumbered in the book; its “27 d tr” are modern tr.
• Modernisation note: Check: Row 3 has 9 groups over the dtr groups plus 9 over the ch-3 sps, giving 18 groups; the ch between is printed as ch 3.
• Modernisation note: Check: “into middle of next ch” (Rows 5 and 7) is read as the center sc of the next group of sc worked over a ch.
• Modernisation note: Check: Row 21 as printed calls for 3 + 6 + 6 + 6 + 6 + 4 lps and 5 pc, more than the 32 lps of Row 20; the counts are transcribed as printed. The popcorn panel is read as a diamond of pc on the front of the cap (Rows 22–29: 2, 3, 4, 5, then 4, 3, 2, 1 pc per group).
• Modernisation note: Check: rows 30–37 “like 14th row” and “like 15th row” are read as a row of ch-5 lps followed by a row of 7 sc in each lp.
• Modernisation note: The ribbon rosette and ties are shown in the photograph but not listed in the book. Finishing lines added.