Baby's Bootees in Star Stitch with Knot-Stitch Leg (1912): vintage crochet pattern

Materials

• Super fine (CYC #1) soft wool yarn — approximate; the original was 1 skein of two-fold Saxony or 2 skeins of zephyr (skein weight and length not printed)
• Silk thread or fine silk yarn for the knot-stitch row and the final edge (quantity not printed)
• Crochet hook (hook not printed)
• Narrow ribbon for ties (length not printed)
• Tapestry needle
• Hook: Start with 2.75 mm (US C-2) — approximate; no hook or measurement is printed, so fit to the baby's foot

Abbreviations (US terms)

ch

chain

sl st

slip stitch

sc

single crochet

st

stitch

sts

stitches

row

row

sk

skip

rep

repeat

lp

loop

yo

yarn over

sh

shell

Notes before you start

• Source: "Baby's Bootees", Priscilla Wool Crochet Book (ed. Lola Burks Hettich), The Priscilla Publishing Company, Boston, 1912. Public domain in the USA.
• As printed — materials: Two-fold Saxony or zephyr; 1 skein of the former or 2 of the latter; Silk for edge and ribbon for ties. 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: Star stitch is the book's own stitch, defined on its “Star Stitch” page (quoted as the first steps of each design that uses it): loops are drawn up in the chain or in the long and short strands of the star below, all taken off together with 1 yo and closed with 1 ch. It has no single modern abbreviation, so it is written “star”. The book's widening terms are kept and explained: “wi 1” (one extra star in the same stitch), “wi 2” (two extra stars in that stitch) and “wi by 2 over 1” (two stars over one star of the row below).
• Modernisation note: Knot stitch is the book's own name for the long-loop single crochet mesh known today as Solomon's knot or love knot; its definition is quoted as the first step of each design that uses it. As the book says, “some crocheters refer to it as knot stitch, and others to knot stitch as just half the group”; the book's word “group” (2 knots) is kept.
• 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: The book's Star Stitch and Knot Stitch pages are quoted as the first steps. “w 1” is the book's abbreviation for widening 1 star.
• Modernisation note: The toe is worked in joined rows around the chain; the book calls them “rows”, and they are labelled Rounds here only to show they are joined.
• Modernisation note: Check: “Double knot stitch” is not defined; it is read as the book's knot stitch worked in groups (2 knots), counted as 25 or 26 groups.
• Modernisation note: Check: how the heel's 17 stars are placed (the 9 skipped stars stay for the instep), and where the 7-star heel rows sit, are as printed; the diagram is not given.
• Modernisation note: Check: the leg's “three clusters” is read as three pairs of knot-stitch and star-stitch rows; the shell edge is not described in detail.
• Modernisation note: Check: the yarn colour is not printed; the photograph shows a white bootee.
• Modernisation note: Round labels in the toe, and the finishing lines, are ours.