Evening Cape with Shell Flounce and Rosette Ruff (1908): vintage crochet pattern

Materials

• Fine (CYC #2) soft, lofty wool yarn — approximate; the original was 32 skeins of Shetland floss (skein weight and length not printed; colour not printed)
• 10 yd (9.1 m) narrow satin ribbon for the yoke (original: No. 3; width not printed)
• 3 yd (2.7 m) wide satin ribbon for ties (original: No. 40; width not printed)
• China silk (or a light silk) for the lining — amount not printed
• Crochet hook (hook not printed)
• Tapestry and sewing needles
• Hook: Start with 4 mm (US G-6) — approximate; no hook or measurement is printed, so fit the 84-ch band to the neck

Abbreviations (US terms)

ch

chain

sc

single crochet

dc

double crochet

tr

treble crochet

st

stitch

sts

stitches

sh

shell

rep

repeat

row

row

Notes before you start

• Source: "Evening Cape", The Priscilla Crochet Book (ed. Lola Burks Hettich), The Priscilla Publishing Company, Boston, 1908. Public domain in the USA.
• As printed — materials: Thirty-two skeins Shetland floss; 10 yards satin ribbon No. 3 for the yoke; 3 yards satin ribbon No. 40 for ties; A lining of China silk. Gauge: Not given.
• Modernisation note: Stitches converted by the book's own “Explanation of Stitches”, not by name: chain stitch (ch st, “make a series of loops, drawing each loop through the preceding one”) = ch; slip stitch (sl st, “insert the hook into the stitch, draw the wool through that stitch and through the wool on hook at the same time”) = sl st; single crochet (s c, “insert the hook, draw wool through, pass wool around hook (wool over), and draw it through both loops on the hook”) = sc; double crochet (d c, wool around the hook, insert, draw through, then through 2 loops twice) = dc; half double crochet (h d c, wool around the hook, insert, draw through, then “through all 3 loops at once”) = hdc; treble crochet (t c or tr c, wool around the hook twice, insert, draw through, then through 2 loops three times) = tr. For these stitches the 1908 American names already match modern US usage, so no stitch changes height. The book's long crochet (l c: wool around the hook, insert, draw through, then through 1 loop, then through 2 loops twice) is the modern extended double crochet; where used it is written “long crochet” with that definition.
• Modernisation note: The book's abbreviations are written in modern US form: ch st = ch, s c = sc, d c = dc, h d c = hdc, t c / tr c = tr, st(s) = st(s), “wool over” / “thread over” / “pass the wool around the hook” = yo; “miss” = sk; loop = lp; “repeat” = rep; “beginning” = beg. “Widen” is written as increase and “narrow” as decrease, as defined in each design. Ordinal row names (“1st row”, “2d row”) are written Row 1, Row 2; where the book calls a circuit of a round piece a “row” the book's word is kept. “Plain” (a row or round with no increases or decreases) is kept as printed.
• 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: Hooks are printed as bone hooks described only as fine, medium-sized or coarse, or by an unstated numbering system, with no diameters, so no exact metric size can be read from the book. The suggested modern hook is an approximate starting point chosen for the yarn weight and tied to any printed measurement.
• Modernisation note: No stitch gauge is printed for this design; work a swatch and match any printed measurement (given in the modern gauge line) before starting.
• Modernisation note: The yarns are 1908 trade descriptions with no exact modern equivalent, and the book prints no yardage or skein/ball weights except where quoted in the materials. The CYC weights given are approximations only: Saxony (a fine, firm yarn) and 2-ply (single) zephyr as super fine (CYC #1); ice wool (a very fine, lustrous yarn) as super fine (CYC #1); Shetland floss (a soft, lofty yarn) and eiderdown wool as fine (CYC #2) — lofty yarns and to be matched by gauge or measurement rather than by weight; 4-ply (split) zephyr, 4-fold Germantown and Spanish yarn as light (CYC #3); 8-fold Germantown and knitting worsted as medium (CYC #4).
• Modernisation note: Row labels for the cape and flounce are ours where the book counts rows only in the running text (“Make 9 rows like preceding row. 11th row …”, “Work six rows. 7th row …”).
• Modernisation note: Check: band Row 1 is printed “1 d c in 5th ch, ch 1, 1 d c in 9th ch” — a ch 1 over 3 skipped ch is unusual, and “7th ch” (a dc in every 2nd ch) may be meant. Work the band to fit the neck.
• Modernisation note: Check: the “Chain 5” that begins each row is read as the turning chain (standing for a dc and ch 1); the rows are worked back and forth.
• Modernisation note: Check: yoke Row 1 is read as (ch 1, dc) along the first 12 dc and then a widening (2 dc with ch 1 between in the same dc) in every dc after; the book does not say whether the widening stops before the other front edge. Follow the photograph.
• Modernisation note: Check: the cape rows place a shell of (2 dc, ch 1, 2 dc) in every 2nd sc; the “9 rows like preceding row” are read as shell-in-shell rows, and from Row 11 the shells of (3 dc, ch 1, 3 dc) go into the ch-1 of each shell.
• Modernisation note: Check: the flounce adds a shell between the shells of the row below; the book does not say whether all six flounce rows widen this way. The 12-tr shells of Row 7 are worked into each shell.
• Modernisation note: Check: the ruff is placed “in third row of collar band” (read as the neck band); how the 36-tr rosettes are formed is not printed.
• Modernisation note: Check: ribbon numbers are period widths not given in inches; where the yoke ribbon runs, and how the lining is cut, are not printed. The colour of the floss is not printed; the cape photographs dark.
• Modernisation note: Metric conversions added.