Infant's Band in Ridged Saxony Single Crochet (1912): vintage crochet pattern

Materials

• Super fine (CYC #1) soft wool yarn in white — approximate; the original was 2 skeins of two-fold white Saxony (skein weight and length not printed). The book asks for a soft quality so it will not irritate.
• Crochet hook (original: fine bone crochet-hook) — the book asks for a fine hook to make the work rather firm
• Tapestry needle
• Hook: Start with 2.75 mm (US C-2) — approximate; change size so the band measures 6 in (15 cm) wide on 42 sts, as printed, with firm work

Abbreviations (US terms)

ch

chain

sc

single crochet

dc

double crochet

st

stitch

sts

stitches

row

row

rep

repeat

BLO

back loop only

sk

skip

Notes before you start

• Source: "Infant's Band", Priscilla Wool Crochet Book (ed. Lola Burks Hettich), The Priscilla Publishing Company, Boston, 1912. Public domain in the USA.
• As printed — materials: Two skeins of two-fold white Saxony; A fine bone crochet-hook. 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: One ridge is 2 rows (a back-loop row and a both-loops row), as the book's alternating rows imply.
• Modernisation note: Check: the first dart takes up 2 + 2 + 3 + 2 = 9 of the 10 skipped stitches, although the book says this makes “same number of stitches as in beginning”; the second dart drops 2 + 3 + 2 + 3 = 10. Take up any remaining stitch in the last short ridge of the first dart.
• Modernisation note: Check: the book counts “42 s c” across, although 1 sc in each of 42 ch would give 41 sc if the turning chain is skipped; stitch counts are as printed.
• Modernisation note: Check: where the scallop (ch 1, 4 dc, ch 1) is worked in relation to the edge stitches (how many are skipped between scallops) is not printed; it is worked all around the band in the photograph.
• Modernisation note: Finishing “Weave in the ends” added.
• Modernisation note: Metric conversions added.