Baby's Sack with Ribbed Yoke and Crossed Double Crochet Skirt (1912): vintage crochet pattern

Materials

• Super fine (CYC #1) wool yarn — approximate; the original was 5 skeins of Saxony wool (skein weight and length not printed)
• 1 spool of silk (or silk-blend) knitting thread for the edging — the original was knitting silk
• Crochet hook to suit the yarn (not printed)
• 2 yd (1.8 m) ribbon, 1 in (2.5 cm) wide
• Tapestry needle
• Hook: Start with 2.75 mm (US C-2) — approximate; the book says only “hook to correspond” and prints no measurements, so fit the 88-ch neck to the baby

Abbreviations (US terms)

ch

chain

sc

single crochet

dc

double crochet

tr

treble crochet

st

stitch

sts

stitches

BLO

back loop only

inc

increase

row

row

rep

repeat

sh

shell

yo

yarn over

lp

loop

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: Five skeins Saxony wool and 1 spool knitting silk, with hook to correspond; 2 yards ribbon 1 inch wide.. 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: The book's “cross” (dc in the 2nd st, then dc back across it into the 1st st) is a crossed double crochet; it has no modern abbreviation and is written “cross”. “Widen” is written as printed; how a cross is widened is not printed (presumably 2 crosses over 1).
• Modernisation note: The book's “long crochet” is the modern extended double crochet; its definition from the book's Explanation of Stitches is added before the beading row.
• Modernisation note: Check: the yoke's “Widen on 22d and 25th sts. Have 40 sts across back” and “having first 4, then 6, 8, etc., across shoulders” are read as 2 widening points on each shoulder with the shoulder sts between them growing by 2 each row; stitch counts are as printed (21 + 4 + 40 + 4 + 21 does not equal 88 exactly).
• Modernisation note: Check: “17th row—Repeat 16th row until first point of yoke is reached, then ch 15, and fasten across to back point of yoke for arm-hole” is read as done at both armholes; the book does not say so.
• Modernisation note: Check: the sleeve Row 1 counts “3 crosses … then 17 … then 6 like first 3” — 3 + 17 + 6 are as printed (the last group is 6, not 3).
• Modernisation note: Check: sleeve Row 23 is not numbered in the book; the tr beading row is read as Row 23 because Row 24 is worked “1 for each tr of 23d row”. The sleeve's seam is the underarm.
• Modernisation note: Finishing line (weaving in ends) added.