Baby's Socks with Puff-stitch Leg and Instep Straps (1912): vintage crochet pattern

Materials

• Super fine (CYC #1) wool yarn — approximate; the original was fine Saxony wool in Pink (slipper part, scallops, straps) and White (instep and leg); quantities not printed
• Crochet hook (not printed)
• Narrow pink ribbon (optional, for the straps)
• Tapestry needle
• Hook: Start with 2.5 mm (US B-1 to C-2) — approximate; no hook or measurement is printed

Abbreviations (US terms)

ch

chain

sc

single crochet

dc

double crochet

st

stitch

sts

stitches

lp

loop

yo

yarn over

rep

repeat

row

row

ps

puff stitch

sk

skip

inc

increase

dec

decrease

Notes before you start

• Source: "Baby's Socks", Priscilla Wool Crochet Book (ed. Lola Burks Hettich), The Priscilla Publishing Company, Boston, 1912. Public domain in the USA.
• As printed — materials: Two colors of fine Saxony wool — pink and white used for the model. 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: The instep “little squares” are afghan (Tunisian simple) stitch: loops picked up under the upright bars and worked off on the return. “Perpendicular bar” is written “upright bar”; “take up … sts” is written “draw up … lps”.
• Modernisation note: The book's “puff st” (3 long loops closed together, then closed with 1 more yo) is written ps, with the book's definition quoted as the first step of the leg.
• Modernisation note: Check: the book works the instep loops off “2 at a time” from the start; the usual Tunisian return begins by drawing through 1 loop. Left as printed.
• Modernisation note: Check: where the 12 instep loops sit on the 40-ch ring, and how the pink round travels along the sides of the 12-row instep strip, are not stated; follow the photograph.
• Modernisation note: Check: the scallop stitch for the top of the slipper and the top of the leg is not given in this design.
• Modernisation note: Check: “For the 5th row make a d c in each ch on top of the row of puff sts” implies a ch between the puffs, which the definition does not mention; the stitch worked between the puffs (in the skipped dc) is not stated.
• Modernisation note: The book gives no instruction to make a second sock; that line added.
• Modernisation note: Metric conversions added.