Baby's Bed Socks with Turn-over Cuff (1912): vintage crochet pattern

Materials

• Fine (CYC #2) soft wool yarn — approximate; the original was zephyr (ply not printed): 1 skein White and ½ skein Pink or Blue
• Crochet hook (not printed)
• Tapestry needle
• Hook: Start with 3 mm (US C-2 to D-3) — approximate; no hook or measurement is printed

Abbreviations (US terms)

ch

chain

dc

double crochet

st

stitch

sts

stitches

lp

loop

yo

yarn over

rep

repeat

row

row

sk

skip

dec

decrease

inc

increase

Notes before you start

• Source: "Baby's Bed Socks", Priscilla Wool Crochet Book (ed. Lola Burks Hettich), The Priscilla Publishing Company, Boston, 1912. Public domain in the USA.
• As printed — materials: One skein of white zephyr and ½ skein of pink or blue. 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 1912 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 1912 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: “Take 1 st up” is written “draw up 1 lp”; “chain off” (the book's word for working loops off the hook on the return pass) is kept as printed.
• Modernisation note: Check: the upper is worked like afghan (Tunisian) crochet in short rows, but the book does not explain how the loops are “chained off” (whether 1 at a time with a chain between or 2 at a time), nor where the second half of Row 1's 68 ch is used. Follow the photograph and a Tunisian short-row method.
• Modernisation note: Check: the stitch used for the 21-row sole is not stated.
• Modernisation note: Check: the turn-over scallop row (“ch 5, 1 ch in the first one, draw wool through the 2 sts on hook and work 1 ch into every other one in the former row”) is left as printed; its exact working is unclear.
• Modernisation note: Check: the colored star is embroidery or a crochet motif; how it is made is not stated.
• Modernisation note: Check: the quantity of the colored yarn is partly unreadable in the scan and is read as ½ skein.
• Modernisation note: The book gives no instruction to make a second sock; finishing line added.
• Modernisation note: Metric conversions added.