Baby's Ridged Socks with Scalloped Top and Ankle Strap (1912): vintage crochet pattern

Materials

• Super fine (CYC #1) wool yarn — approximate; the original was Saxony: a full ½ oz (14 g) Cream and a full ½ oz (14 g) baby Pink
• Crochet hook (original: No. 14 bone hook)
• 1 small button for each strap
• Tapestry needle
• Hook: Start with 2.5 mm (US B-1 to C-2) — approximate; change size so each double crochet is about 1/7 in (3.5 mm) wide and just under ¼ in (6 mm) tall, as printed

Abbreviations (US terms)

ch

chain

dc

double crochet

tr

treble crochet

st

stitch

sts

stitches

rep

repeat

row

row

rnd

round

sk

skip

BLO

back loop only

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: A full half-ounce of cream and a full half-ounce of baby pink Saxony; A No. 14 bone hook, or a hook which will make a stitch about 1-7 of an inch long, and a "short" quarter of an inch deep. Gauge: A stitch about 1-7 of an inch long, and a "short" quarter of an inch deep.
• 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: “Easy chain” is written “ch loosely”; “miss” is written sk; “back loop” is written blo; “take 2 together” is written dec as printed in the rounds that define it.
• Modernisation note: The printed hook description (“a hook which will make a stitch about 1-7 of an inch long, and a ‘short’ quarter of an inch deep”) is used as the gauge.
• Modernisation note: Check: “work the second side of the ankle like the first on 20 sts” does not say where the second side is worked (presumably on the other side of the foundation chain of the 34-st rows); follow the photograph.
• Modernisation note: Check: the turning-chain counts in Rnds 5 and 8–10 (1 or 2 ch) are printed differently in each round; left as printed.
• Modernisation note: Check: how the strap is attached to the sock is not stated.
• Modernisation note: The book gives no instruction to make a second sock; finishing line added.
• Modernisation note: Metric conversions added.