Guest Towel Shell Edging, Plate 38 (1917): vintage crochet pattern

Materials

• Size 20 or size 30 mercerized crochet cotton — approximate; the original was J. & P. Coats Mercerized Crochet Cotton, No. 20 or 30 (amount not printed)
• Steel crochet hook
• Sewing needle and thread for attaching the edging to the towel
• Hook: Start with a 1.0–1.25 mm (US steel 9–10) hook — approximate; no hook is printed. Change size for a firm, even edging.

Abbreviations (US terms)

ch

chain

sc

single crochet

dc

double crochet

sh

shell

ch-sp

chain space

st

stitch

rep

repeat

row

row

lp

loop

Notes before you start

• Source: "Plate 38. Edging" (Plate 38), 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 Mercerized Crochet Cotton, No. 20 or 30 (“for the edgings and insertions shown in Plates 38 to 43”). 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: J. & P. Coats Mercerized Crochet Cotton numbers are read as roughly equal to the modern crochet thread sizes of the same number — approximate only. The book prints no yardage or ball length, so none is given.
• 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 shell is printed “a shell of 3 tr, 3 ch 3 tr” (3 dc, ch 3, 3 dc).
• Modernisation note: Check: “Ch 5, in first stitch work a shell” is read as working the shell into the 1st ch made (the 5th ch from the hook). The ch-5 at the end of each row forms the edge loops, which fall alternately on the two sides of the strip.
• Modernisation note: Check: the book says “Repeat these two rows”, but Row 1 is the foundation; the repeat is read as working Row 2 over and over.
• Modernisation note: Check: the picot size is not given; the stitch key gives ch 3 or ch 5, sl st in 1st ch.
• Modernisation note: Finishing lines added.