Star Medallion on the Cover (1920): vintage crochet pattern

Materials

• Size 30 mercerized cotton crochet thread — approximate; the original was Coats Mercerized Crochet, No. 30 (amount not printed)
• Steel crochet hook
• Tapestry needle for the ends
• Hook: Start with a 1.25 mm (US steel 8) hook — approximate. Change size until the edging lies flat.

Abbreviations (US terms)

ch

chain

sl st

slip stitch

sc

single crochet

dc

double crochet

tr

treble crochet

cl

cluster

sp

space

ch-sp

chain space

st

stitch

sts

stitches

rep

repeat

row

row

sk

skip

lp

loop

Notes before you start

• Source: "Medallion on Cover", 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. 30. 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: Half treble crochet (h tr, key No. 7) is the book's cluster: “sometimes called ‘group stitch’”, a run of trebles each left with its last two loops on the needle, all drawn off together at the end. Half double treble (h d tr, key No. 8) is the same thing made with double trebles. Because the book's treble is the modern dc and its double treble the modern tr, a book h tr is written here as a cluster of dc drawn off together and a book h d tr as a cluster of tr drawn off together; the number of stitches in the cluster is whatever the design prints.
• 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: Check: no hook is printed for this medallion. The book's page-5 table pairs No. 30 thread with a No. 9 hook, and the metric hook suggested here is ours, read across from the thread size.
• Modernisation note: Check: Row 8 is printed with three opening stars and no closing one — “*Ch 3 over bar, sk 1 bar, *tr ch 3 tr, *in 2d sp, ...” — so the inner stars are read as printer's marks rather than repeat points, and the round is written as one repeat from the first star, which is where the printed “*Repeat all around” sends you back.
• Modernisation note: Check: Row 3 prints “5 d tr in each mesh, 7 ch between” with no count; there are ten meshes from Row 2, so the round makes ten fans.
• Modernisation note: Check: Row 1 prints “fill with tr” with no stitch count. The companion medallion on the same page fills a ch-10 ring with 24 of the same stitch, but this one prints no number, so none is given here.
• Modernisation note: Finishing lines added; the book prints none for this medallion.