Baby's Bib in Ridged Silk Crochet with Roll-Stitch Frills (1912): vintage crochet pattern

Materials

• Silk crochet thread in dark cream — approximate; thread size, quantity and length not printed
• Steel crochet hook (original: medium steel crochet-hook; size not printed)
• Cream taffeta or satin ribbon about ½ in (13 mm) wide for the back ties (length not printed)
• Steam iron and pressing cloth
• Hook: Start with 1.5 mm (US steel 7) — approximate; the book gives only “medium steel crochet-hook” and no measurement

Abbreviations (US terms)

ch

chain

sc

single crochet

dc

double crochet

st

stitch

sts

stitches

row

row

sk

skip

rep

repeat

sh

shell

BLO

back loop only

inc

increase

lp

loop

Notes before you start

• Source: "Baby's Bib", Priscilla Wool Crochet Book (ed. Lola Burks Hettich), The Priscilla Publishing Company, Boston, 1912. Public domain in the USA.
• As printed — materials: Dark cream silk; Medium steel crochet-hook. 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 book's “roll st” is described only as “silk over 12 times”; it is the stitch known today as the bullion or roll stitch (yo 12 times, insert the hook, yo and draw up a lp, then yo and draw through all the lps on the hook — this method is the modern one, not printed in the book). It has no abbreviation in the list, so it is written “roll st”.
• Modernisation note: “Taking up back of st to make ridge” is written as working in the back of the stitch; one ridge is two rows, as the book states.
• Modernisation note: Check: Row 1 is printed only as “One d c in third ch, 1 d c in following ch”; it is read as dc across the chain, but the book does not say so.
• Modernisation note: Check: how the rows are shaped is printed briefly (a stitch skipped at the centre of every other row, with decreases then increases at the edges) and the total number of rows is not given; work until the last row has 52 sts, as printed.
• Modernisation note: Check: in arm Row 1 “* 1 d c in second ch, 1 ch *” is followed by “1 d c in second ch, repeat”; the repeat is written between the asterisks as printed.
• Modernisation note: Check: the “extra rows” are said to be worked on the bottom after the shell edging; the book prints one extra row and a last row.
• Modernisation note: Ribbon width “1-2 inch” is read as ½ inch. Finishing “Weave in the ends” added.
• Modernisation note: Metric conversions added.