Baby's Sack with Russian Crochet Yoke and Bean-Stitch Skirt (1912): vintage crochet pattern

Materials

• Fine (CYC #2) soft lofty wool yarn in white — approximate; the original was 6 skeins of Shetland floss (skein weight and length not printed)
• A small amount of the same yarn in pink (amount not printed)
• Crochet hook (hook not printed)
• Ribbon for the neck and wrists (length not printed)
• Tapestry needle
• Hook: Start with 3.5 mm (US E-4) — approximate; no hook or measurement is printed, so fit the 93-ch neck edge of the yoke to the baby

Abbreviations (US terms)

ch

chain

sc

single crochet

tr

treble crochet

st

stitch

sts

stitches

BLO

back loop only

sk

skip

rep

repeat

lp

loop

yo

yarn over

row

row

rnd

round

inc

increase

Notes before you start

• Source: "Baby's Sack", Priscilla Wool Crochet Book (ed. Lola Burks Hettich), The Priscilla Publishing Company, Boston, 1912. Public domain in the USA.
• As printed — materials: This pretty sack requires six skeins of white Shetland floss. (Pink is used for trimming rows, and ribbon at neck and wrists; neither is listed.). 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: Bean stitch is the book's own stitch (a 3-lp puff closed with ch 1, worked over 3 sts); this is the design in which the book defines it, and the definition is quoted as the first steps. It has no single modern abbreviation, so it is written “bean”.
• Modernisation note: Russian crochet is the book's name for the yoke's ridged single crochet worked in the back loop (“1 s c in back loop of st”), turned each row.
• Modernisation note: Check: Row 1 is printed “2 s c in next 2, 3 s c in next, 2 s c in next 2, miss 2”; compared with Row 2 (“s c in next, 2 in next, 3 in next, 2 in next, 1 in next”) this may mean 1 sc in each of the next 2 sts, or 2 sc in each. Written as printed.
• Modernisation note: Check: Row 14's “miss only 1 st around 2 points” and the ch-20 openings are read as the underarm (armhole) divisions: 2 points for each front, 5 points for the back, and 2 points skipped at each side for the sleeves. The book does not say so.
• Modernisation note: Check: the sleeves are not said to start from the skipped points and ch 20; they are presumably worked in rounds around the armhole. The sleeve's “Another round of bean st, then a round of pink, one round white” is read with the unnamed round in white.
• Modernisation note: Check: Neck Row 2 “Two s c in 2 sts” is written as printed (either 1 sc in each of 2 sts or 2 sc in each).
• Modernisation note: Finishing “Weave in the ends.” added.