A Narrow Block Insertion: vintage crochet pattern

Materials

• Size 30 to 40 white cotton crochet thread in place of the book's No. 36 Ardern's crochet cotton — ours, read across by thread number
• A fine steel hook to suit the thread
• Hook: Start with about 1.4 mm (US steel 7) — ours, approximate. The book prints only a maker's hook number. Change size until the fabric is firm and even.

Abbreviations (US terms)

ch

chain

sc

single crochet

dc

double crochet

sp

space

rep

repeat

row

row

Notes before you start

• Source: "A Narrow Block Insertion", The Home Art Crochet Book (edited by Flora Klickmann), The Office of “The Girl's Own Paper & Woman's Magazine”, 4 Bouverie Street E.C., & 65 St. Paul's Churchyard, London; printed by Curtis & Beamish, Ltd., Coventry, England. Public domain in the USA.
• As printed — materials: Use Ardern's No. 36 crochet cotton.. Gauge: Not given.
• Modernisation note: Stitches are converted by this book's own printed key and its own printed wrap counts, not by stitch name. This is a BRITISH book. The key stands at the head of book page 1 (image p-008.jpg) under the heading “Abbreviations used.” and reads: “ch = chain ; s c = single crochet ; d c = double crochet ; tr = treble ; d tr = double treble ; l tr = long treble ; sp = space ; st = stitch.” The book then glosses its tall stitches with wrap counts in the directions themselves, which fixes the ladder beyond argument: “turn the thread twice around the needle for a long tr” (book page 2) and “3 long tr (thread twice over hook)” (book page 9) make the long treble a 2-wrap, 4-loop stitch — the modern US treble; “3 triple tr into the ring (thread three times over the needle)” (book page 6) makes the triple treble a 3-wrap, 5-loop stitch — the modern US double treble; and “a quadruple tr (thread four times over the needle)” (book page 13) takes 4 wraps. Counting back down that ladder the book's plain tr can only be a 1-wrap, 3-loop stitch, which is the modern US double crochet, and its d c — worked with no wrap — is the modern US single crochet. Its “s c”, the old British single crochet, is the flat joining stitch and is written sl st. So here: d c = sc, tr = dc, long tr and d tr = tr, triple tr = dtr, s c = sl st, miss = sk.
• Modernisation note: The printed directions run as solid paragraphs, and where the book numbers its rows it does so as “1st Row.”, “2nd Row.” and so on. They are split here into one row or step per line and the ordinals are written Row 1, Row 2, Row 3. Where the book starts a new row with only “Turn with …” and no number, a number is supplied in sequence and the change is noted. Stitch order and counts are unchanged.
• Modernisation note: The scan of this book carries the usual optical-reading slips and every figure below was read back against the page image: the scan's “lst” and “Ist” are 1st, its “8rd” is 3rd, its “11zh” is 11th, its “de” for a stitch is d c, its “ir” is tr, its “trs” is tr, its “inte” is into, its “imsert” is insert, its “donble” is double, its “crocliet” is crochet, and its “miss3 ch” is miss 3 ch. These are scanning artefacts, not printed errors, and they are corrected silently in the rows; genuine PRINTED slips are a different matter and are always flagged with a “Check:” note instead of being quietly mended.
• Modernisation note: Hooks are printed only as period British maker's numbers (“No. 6 crochet-hook”, “No. 5 hook”, “a medium fine crochet-hook”) with no diameters, and those numbers do not map onto the modern scale. Any metric size given in the modern materials is ours and is a starting point only.
• Modernisation note: No gauge, tension or stitch-per-inch figure is printed for this design, or for any design in this book. Work a sample and change hook size to suit the thread.
• Modernisation note: No yardage is estimated. The book never prints a ball length, a reel length or a quantity for any design — it names a thread and a hook and nothing more — so there is no printed basis for a yardage figure and none is invented here.
• Modernisation note: No finished measurement is printed for this design. Like every edging and insertion in this book it is worked to the length required, and its depth is set by the stitch counts printed, not by any measurement the book gives.
• Modernisation note: Thread brands are listed exactly as printed. Ardern's, Manlove's and D.M.C. were the British and Continental cotton brands the book's readers bought; the higher the number the finer the thread, on the same principle as modern crochet cotton sizing. Where the book names a size, that size is kept as printed.
• Modernisation note: The book describes this insertion as consisting entirely of solid and open spaces, and prints no first-row number — it simply says to start with the four open spaces. That structure is kept above, with the book's own numbering for Rows 2 to 5.