Guest Towel Flower Edging, Plate 40 (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

sl st

slip stitch

sc

single crochet

dc

double crochet

dtr

double treble crochet

st

stitch

sts

stitches

rep

repeat

row

row

Notes before you start

• Source: "Plate 40. Edging" (Plate 40), 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 book calls the petals “leaves”; they are written “petals” here.
• Modernisation note: Check: “making the last st of 4th leaf a tr tr” is read as ending the 4th petal with a dtr in place of the ch 5, sl st, so the flower ends ready to chain to the next ring. The book does not say where this dtr is worked.
• Modernisation note: Check: each petal uses 3 of the 18 sc, so 4 petals use 12 sc; the remaining sts where the flowers join are not counted in the book.
• Modernisation note: Check: “fasten to ch in st next previous leaf for 1st tr tr” is transcribed as printed; the join between the new ring and the previous flower is best matched to the photograph.
• Modernisation note: Check: the heading row's repeat is read as starting with the ch 9 at each flower; the book places no asterisk.
• Modernisation note: Finishing lines added.