Baby's Sack with Ribbed Yoke, Cluster Body and Revers (1912): vintage crochet pattern

Materials

• Super fine (CYC #1) wool yarn — approximate; the original was 3 skeins of white two-fold Saxony (skein weight and length not printed)
• Super fine (CYC #1) wool yarn in pink or blue — approximate; the original was 1 skein of three-fold Saxony
• Part of a spool of crochet silk (or a fine silk-blend thread) to match the coloured yarn
• Crochet hook (hook not printed)
• 3½ yd (3.2 m) narrow ribbon to match the coloured yarn
• Tapestry needle and sewing needle
• Hook: Start with 2.75 mm (US C-2) — approximate; no hook is printed, so choose a size to suit the yarn and match the printed 3-in (7.5 cm) underarm chains

Abbreviations (US terms)

ch

chain

sc

single crochet

dc

double crochet

st

stitch

sts

stitches

BLO

back loop only

inc

increase

row

row

rep

repeat

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: One skein of pink or blue three-fold Saxony, 3 skeins of white two-fold Saxony, 3½ yards of narrow ribbon to match colored wool, part of a spool of crochet silk to match colored wool.. 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: 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: A “cluster of 4 double crochet” is 4 dc worked into one place (a 4-dc shell), not a modern decrease cluster; it is written “cluster of 4 dc” as printed.
• Modernisation note: The book's laundering directions, printed after this sack, are general and are not part of this design.
• Modernisation note: Check: the yoke colour is not stated; the materials give one skein of the coloured three-fold Saxony, and the body begins “With white wool”, so the yoke is read as worked in the coloured yarn.
• Modernisation note: Check: “work 2 sts in 37th and 40th sts, work to within 40 sts of end, increase one in 40th st and 37th st from end” gives 2 widening points on each shoulder; stitch counts are as printed.
• Modernisation note: Check: the book does not say where along the yoke the first cluster row is worked (into the last yoke row) or how many sts are skipped between clusters.
• Modernisation note: Check: “ch 3 inches” is read as a chain 3 in (7.5 cm) long at each underarm; the sleeve is worked back and forth (open) and laced together with ribbon.
• Modernisation note: Check: “Chain 2 and with s c catch into every stitch of shell” is read as ch 2, sc in each st of the shell around.
• Modernisation note: Finishing line (weaving in ends) added.