Infant's Sack with Rib-Stitch Yoke and Raised Loop Skirt (1912): vintage crochet pattern

Materials

• Super fine (CYC #1) wool yarn in white — approximate; the original was 5 skeins of white Saxony (skein weight and length not printed)
• Optional: super fine (CYC #1) wool yarn in a colour for the yoke, cuffs and edges — approximate; the original was 1 skein of Saxony
• Crochet hook (hook not printed)
• Tapestry needle
• Hook: Start with 2.75 mm (US C-2) — approximate; no hook is printed. The raised loops are drawn out about ¾ in (19 mm), which does not depend on hook size.

Abbreviations (US terms)

ch

chain

sc

single crochet

dc

double crochet

sl st

slip stitch

st

stitch

sts

stitches

row

row

sk

skip

rep

repeat

lp

loop

yo

yarn over

BLO

back loop only

inc

increase

Notes before you start

• Source: "Infant's Sack", Priscilla Wool Crochet Book (ed. Lola Burks Hettich), The Priscilla Publishing Company, Boston, 1912. Public domain in the USA.
• As printed — materials: Five skeins of white Saxony; if color is desired, one skein (from the directions; no materials list printed). 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 raised drawn-out loop stitch of the sleeves and skirt is the book's own stitch, defined in the sleeve's 2nd row; its definition is quoted as the first step and it is called “raised loop stitch” here (the name is ours).
• Modernisation note: Check: “rib-stitch” is not defined for this design; it is read as sc worked back and forth in the back loop only, so that 2 rows make 1 rib, as in the book's other ribbed designs.
• Modernisation note: Row 1's counts work out: 12 + 1 + 24 + 1 + 12 = 50 ch used plus the skipped first ch = 51 ch; the increase ch (3 sc each) mark the shoulders.
• Modernisation note: Check: “making them around 4 of the top loops” (sleeve Row 3) is unclear; it is kept as printed.
• Modernisation note: Check: where the sleeve's cuff ribs begin and how the skirt is joined at the underarm are not printed; the skirt is worked on the lower edge of the yoke and underarm chains.
• Modernisation note: Check: the ruffle at the yoke edge is not described; the sleeve ruffle (4 dc in every other sc, ch-3 picot) may be used. The photograph shows a coloured yoke and cuffs with white ruffles.
• Modernisation note: Check: no ribbon or ties are printed, though the photograph shows a bow and ties at the neck.
• Modernisation note: Finishing “Weave in the ends” added.
• Modernisation note: Metric conversions added.