Ladies' Triangular Fluted Shell Shawl (1912): vintage crochet pattern

Materials

• Light (CYC #3) soft wool yarn for the body — approximate; the original was 20 skeins of cream-white Germantown zephyr (skein weight and length not printed)
• Super fine (CYC #1) wool yarn for the border — approximate; the original was 2 skeins of Saxony
• 7½ yd (6.9 m) satin ribbon 1 in (25 mm) wide
• Crochet hook (original: medium-sized hook)
• Tapestry needle
• Hook: Start with 4.5 mm (US 7) — approximate; no gauge is printed, so check the finished size (2 yd / 1.83 m across the top, 1 yd / 0.9 m deep) as you go

Abbreviations (US terms)

ch

chain

sl st

slip stitch

sc

single crochet

dc

double crochet

tr

treble crochet

st

stitch

sts

stitches

sk

skip

sh

shell

rep

repeat

row

row

Notes before you start

• Source: "Ladies' Shawl", Priscilla Wool Crochet Book (ed. Lola Burks Hettich), The Priscilla Publishing Company, Boston, 1912. Public domain in the USA.
• As printed — materials: Twenty skeins cream-white Germantown zephyr for the body of shawl; 2 skeins of Saxony for the border; 7½ yards 1-inch satin ribbon; A medium-sized 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: “Germantown zephyr” is given as light (CYC #3) and Saxony as super fine (CYC #1); these are approximations.
• Modernisation note: Row labels 1–5 added; the book runs the first 3 rows together (“This finishes the first 3 rows”) and names the 5th row.
• Modernisation note: Check: the materials name Saxony “for the border”, but the directions do not say at which row the Saxony begins; the openwork border and top shells are the likely parts.
• Modernisation note: Check: “Repeat this row 7 times” is read as 7 more rows (Rows 2–8), so that the 9th row, with ch 7, is the last; this matches the book's numbering.
• Modernisation note: Check: how the openwork border is widened at the lower corner is not stated beyond “so the work will be plenty full enough”.
• Modernisation note: Finishing line (weaving in ends) added. Metric conversions added.