Baby's Sack with Pointed Yoke and Stack-Stitch Body (1912): vintage crochet pattern

Materials

• Super fine (CYC #1) wool yarn — approximate; the original was two-fold Saxony: 3 skeins Blue and 1 skein Pink (skein weight and length not printed)
• Crochet hook (the book gives a fine bone hook)
• 4 yd (3.7 m) narrow pink ribbon — the original was No. 2 ribbon (a narrow period ribbon size; width not printed)
• Tapestry needle
• Hook: Start with 2.25 mm (US B-1) — approximate; the book gives only a fine bone hook and no measurements, so fit the 115-ch neck to the baby

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

ch-sp

chain space

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: Three skeins of blue and 1 of pink two-fold Saxony, a fine bone hook, and 4 yards of No. 2 pink ribbon to match the pink Saxony.. 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: Stack stitch is the book's own crossed group of 5 dc (3 dc worked first, then 2 dc worked back into the skipped sts so they cross over); its directions are quoted as printed. It has no modern abbreviation and is written “stack”.
• Modernisation note: This sack prints its own bean stitch (loops drawn up in one st, drawn out ½ in, and fastened with a sc), which differs from the bean stitch defined with the Baby's Sack on book page 44; this design's own directions are quoted before the row that uses it. It has no modern abbreviation and is written “bean”. “Sts on the hook” is written lps.
• Modernisation note: The book's “1-2 inch” is its printing of ½ inch.
• Modernisation note: Check: yoke Row 1 ends “repeat from * 14 times, 3 s c”; the final “3 sc” is written as printed (presumably 3 sc in the last st or the last 3 sts). The book does not say whether the yoke sc are worked in the back loop, but it speaks of “ridges”, so back-loop sc (ridged) is likely.
• Modernisation note: Check: “Take up a st on the hook, wool over and take another st in the same place, wool over and take another in the same place, thus making 6 sts on the hook” — the count of 6 includes the yo loops; written as printed.
• Modernisation note: Check: the picot edge is not described (picot size not printed).
• Modernisation note: Check: border rows are numbered by us; the book calls the 8-dc shell row “the 3d row of the border”, so it counts only the blue shell rows.
• Modernisation note: Check: No. 2 ribbon is a period ribbon size; its width is not printed.
• Modernisation note: Finishing line (weaving in ends) added.