Baby's Sack with Rib-Stitch Yoke and Rose Treble Shell Skirt (1912): vintage crochet pattern

Materials

• Super fine (CYC #1) wool yarn — approximate; the original was 6 skeins of Saxony (skein weight and length not printed)
• Crochet hook with a long, evenly tapered point (for the 18-wrap Rose Treble)
• Tapestry needle
• Hook: Start with 2.75 mm (US C-2) — approximate; the book gives only a bone hook that slants to a point and no measurements. The rib-stitch loops are drawn up ½ in (13 mm), which does not depend on hook size.

Abbreviations (US terms)

ch

chain

sc

single crochet

dc

double crochet

st

stitch

sts

stitches

lp

loop

yo

yarn over

row

row

rep

repeat

sk

skip

sh

shell

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: Six skeins of Saxony were used in the model, which is large enough for a child one year old or probably older.; A bone crochet-hook that slants to a point is used, as the skirt is made mostly in Relief Crochet.. 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: Rib stitch is the book's own “new and original” stitch (four ½-in loops drawn up with a yo before each, worked off in two steps and closed with ch 1); it has no modern abbreviation and is written out in full. The printed “1-2 inch” is the book's way of printing ½ inch.
• Modernisation note: Rose Treble is the book's own name for a coiled stitch of 18 wraps, similar to the modern bullion stitch; its directions are quoted as printed. Relief crochet here means double crochet worked around the post of the stitches below.
• Modernisation note: Check: the book does not say how the “back of neck” rows (14 sts, then 32 ch for the right front) join to the shoulder already worked, nor where the second shoulder is worked; the yoke construction is written as printed — follow the photograph.
• Modernisation note: Check: “work 4 sts in length two rows or one rib at either the front or back yoke, and join it” is read as a 4-st-wide strip, 1 rib long, joined to form the underarm.
• Modernisation note: Check: in the skirt Row 1, “2 d c in each row” is read as 2 dc into the end of each yoke row (along the lower edge of the yoke). “A Rose Treble Shell of 4 sts” in each rib gives 20 shells.
• Modernisation note: Check: “in the 4th shell row use five Rose Treble, in the 5th the same” — so the 1st–3rd shell rows have 4.
• Modernisation note: Check: the collar and front scallops are only said to “correspond”; no directions are printed for them.
• Modernisation note: Finishing line (weaving in ends) added.