Chain Scallop Edge for the Kitchen Towel (1920): vintage crochet pattern

Materials

• Size 70 mercerized cotton crochet thread — approximate; the original was Coats Mercerized Crochet, No. 70 (amount not printed)
• Steel crochet hook
• Tapestry needle for the ends
• Hook: Start with a 1.0 mm (US steel 11–12) hook — approximate. Change size until the edging lies flat.

Abbreviations (US terms)

ch

chain

sl st

slip stitch

st

stitch

sts

stitches

rep

repeat

row

row

Notes before you start

• Source: "Kitchen Towel or Cup Towel — Edge Across Bottom" (Plates 89 to 96), J. & P. Coats Crochet Book No. 5: Edgings, Insertions, Medallions (designed by Anne Orr), J. & P. Coats (R. I.) Incorporated, Pawtucket, R.I., 1920. Public domain in the USA.
• As printed — materials: Coats Mercerized Crochet, No. 70; No. 13 Hook. Gauge: Not given.
• Modernisation note: Stitches are converted by this book's own key (“Foundation Stitches and How to Make Them”, book pages 4 and 5), not by name. The key defines: chain stitch (ch); slip stitch (sl st), drawn through the stitch and the loop on the needle in one motion; single stitch (s st), insert, draw through the stitch making two loops on the needle, then draw through those two — the modern US single crochet; treble crochet (tr), thread round the needle once, draw through, off two and off two, with the note “Three chains equal one treble in measure and in count” — the modern US double crochet; double treble crochet (d tr), thread round twice, worked off two at a time for three repeats — the modern US treble; triple treble crochet (tr tr), thread round three times, four repeats — the modern US double treble. So this 1920 book's treble names stand one step taller than modern US names, and every book tr is written dc here, every d tr is written tr, and every tr tr is written dtr. This is the same key, word for word, that J. & P. Coats Crochet Books No. 2 and No. 3 print, and it is verified here from this book's own pages rather than assumed. It is American period naming, not British: the key's own working definitions settle it, since its “single stitch” draws through both loops in one step (a sc, not a British dc) and its “treble” takes only one thread-over.
• Modernisation note: This book writes single crochet two ways in its own directions — “s st”, the key's name, and “sc”, which it uses freely in the medallion rows. Both are the modern US single crochet and both are written sc here.
• Modernisation note: The book's wording is written in modern US form: “needle” = hook; “throw thread around the needle” = yo; “skip” = sk; “Repeat from *” = rep from *; st(s) = st(s); sp = sp; sh = shell. “2d sp”, “3d sp”, “5th s st” mean the 2nd, 3rd and 5th space or stitch counted on from the last one worked.
• Modernisation note: Picot is the book's own (key No. 9): “usually made by a chain of three or five, then a slip stitch in the first chain”, with any variation given in the design's own directions. Where a design prints its own picot count it is kept; where it prints only “p”, the chain-3 or chain-5 picot of the key is the one to use.
• Modernisation note: The printed paragraphs are split into one row, round or step per line; stitch order and counts are unchanged. Section headings added for navigation. Ordinal row names (“1st Row”, “2d Row”, “3d Row”) are written Row 1, Row 2, Row 3, and the book's word “Row” is kept even where the work goes around.
• Modernisation note: Coats Mercerized Crochet numbers are read as roughly equal to the modern crochet thread sizes of the same number — approximate only. The book prints no ball length or yardage for any design, so no yardage is given here.
• Modernisation note: Unlike Coats Books No. 2 and No. 3, this book prints a thread-and-hook table (book page 5, “Directions for Filet Crochet Work”), which pairs No. 30 thread with a No. 9 hook at 4 meshes to the inch, No. 50 with No. 12 at 6½, No. 60 with No. 12 at 7, No. 70 with No. 13 at 8, and No. 100 with No. 14 at 9½ to 10 — with the warning that the table only holds if the thread is held tight. Those are 1920 maker's steel-hook numbers and do not map onto the modern US steel scale, so any metric hook suggested here is ours, read across from the thread size; the printed numbers are recorded in the original materials.
• Modernisation note: No gauge is printed for this design. The book's page-5 table gives meshes to the inch for filet mesh only, which is not this design's fabric; work a sample and change hook size until the edging lies flat.
• Modernisation note: No finished measurement is printed for this design; it is worked to fit the piece it trims, so its length is set by that piece.
• Modernisation note: Check: no colour is printed for this design. The plates photograph as a plain light thread, and the book's covers list Coats Mercerized Crochet in White and in Ecru.
• Modernisation note: Check: this edge is printed as the finish of a filet piece whose own pattern of blocks and spaces is given only as a squared working-pattern plate, so that piece is not transcribed here. The edge itself is complete as printed and is written below as it stands. Work it over the last row of any filet piece with the same spacing, or over a foundation row of spaces made to the length wanted.
• Modernisation note: Space (sp) and block (bl) are the book's filet units (key Nos. 10 and 11): a space is 1 dc, ch 2, sk 2; a block is dc worked in adjoining stitches, four dc in the first block of a run and three in each block after it. A space at the beginning of a row starts with ch 5 — three for the edge dc and two for the chain at the top of the space. “Bar” is the book's word for the single dc that stands between two spaces.
• Modernisation note: The printed “No. 13 Hook” is a 1920 maker's steel-hook number and does not map onto the modern US steel scale; the metric hook suggested here is ours, read across from the thread size.
• Modernisation note: Check: the source OCR reads two of the joins as “neat bl”; the page image prints “next bl” in both places, and the printed page is followed here.
• Modernisation note: Check: the blocks are the filet blocks along the lower edge of the towel insertion, whose own design is charted rather than printed. Worked over any row of filet blocks of the same spacing this finish stands on its own.