Baby's Carriage Afghan in Two-Colour Afghan Stitch (1912): vintage crochet pattern

Materials

• Super fine (CYC #1) wool yarn — approximate; the original was Saxony: 4 oz (113 g) White and 2 oz (57 g) of a colour
• Long Tunisian (afghan) crochet hook and an ordinary crochet hook of the same size (size not printed)
• 14 yd (12.8 m) narrow satin ribbon to match the coloured yarn, as printed
• Tapestry needle
• Hook: Start with a 3.5 mm (US E-4) Tunisian hook and a 3.5 mm standard hook — approximate; no hook size or measurement is printed. Afghan stitch is usually worked with a hook larger than for ordinary crochet in the same yarn.

Abbreviations (US terms)

ch

chain

dc

double crochet

tr

treble crochet

st

stitch

sts

stitches

lp

loop

yo

yarn over

row

row

rep

repeat

sk

skip

Notes before you start

• Source: "Baby's Carriage Afghan", Priscilla Wool Crochet Book (ed. Lola Burks Hettich), The Priscilla Publishing Company, Boston, 1912. Public domain in the USA.
• As printed — materials: Four ounces white and 2 ounces of colored Saxony; a long double crochet-hook, a short crochet-hook of the same size. Fourteen yards of narrow satin ribbon to match the colored wool. In afghan stitch.. 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: Metric conversions added.
• Modernisation note: Afghan stitch is the book's name for what is now called Tunisian crochet (loops raised onto a long hook, then worked off 2 at a time). “A long double crochet-hook” is read as a long afghan (Tunisian) hook. The book's “raise 100 loops” is written “raise 100 lps”.
• Modernisation note: Double stitch is the book's own border stitch, defined in the directions and quoted as printed; it has no single modern abbreviation. “Put the hook into the same st and draw the wool through” is written with “yarn”.
• Modernisation note: Check: the book says “turn the work” before working off the loops with the coloured yarn, yet also “always working in the same direction” and breaking off the yarn at the end of each row. Tunisian crochet is normally worked off without turning; follow the photograph.
• Modernisation note: Check: “Work three more rows of d c” is read as three more rows of the double stitch (so 4 rows in all); the book then speaks of “three rows of ribbon through the holes formed by the double stitches”. Whether the border is worked around all four sides (the four bunches of loops at the corners suggest so) and how the corners are turned is not printed.
• Modernisation note: Check: “long trebles” are not defined; they are presumably tr (or the book's long crochet made as a treble). The book also does not say where the 5 long trebles are placed; they are presumably all in one st, between the dc sts. Written as printed.
• Modernisation note: Check: “Make a ch of 101 sts with both wools” is read as the two yarns held together.