Napoleon Hat in Star Stitch (1912): vintage crochet pattern

Materials

• Light (CYC #3) wool yarn — approximate; the original was Germantown: 2 to 3 skeins Cream and 1 skein of a contrasting colour (blue in the directions); skein weight and length not printed
• Crochet hook (no hook size printed)
• Silk for lining and canvas for interlining (amounts not printed)
• Hairpin lace loom (staple) for the rosettes, as illustrated (optional)
• Ribbon ties or elastic
• Tapestry needle
• Hook: Start with 4 mm (US G-6) — approximate; no hook or measurement is printed, so choose a size that keeps the star loops loose and even

Abbreviations (US terms)

ch

chain

sc

single crochet

sl st

slip stitch

st

stitch

sts

stitches

lp

loop

yo

yarn over

rep

repeat

row

row

sk

skip

Notes before you start

• Source: "Napoleon Hat", Priscilla Wool Crochet Book (ed. Lola Burks Hettich), The Priscilla Publishing Company, Boston, 1912. Public domain in the USA.
• As printed — materials: Made of Germantown in 5-stitch star stitch. It takes from 2 to 3 skeins of cream and one of a contrasting color.. 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: Star stitch is the book's own stitch, defined on its “Star Stitch” page (quoted as the first steps of each design that uses it): loops are drawn up in the chain or in the long and short strands of the star below, all taken off together with 1 yo and closed with 1 ch. It has no single modern abbreviation, so it is written “star”. The book's widening terms are kept and explained: “wi 1” (one extra star in the same stitch), “wi 2” (two extra stars in that stitch) and “wi by 2 over 1” (two stars over one star of the row below).
• Modernisation note: Staple work (“also called hairpin work and Maltese crochet”) is modern hairpin lace, worked on a U-shaped wire staple (a hairpin lace loom or fork). The book's width is the distance between the prongs. Its method is quoted as the first steps of each design that uses it.
• 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 book calls the circuits of the crown and brim “rows”; they are written as rounds because the hat is worked in a circle. “Clip the wool” is written as fasten off where it occurs.
• Modernisation note: The hat's own directions for the 4-loop star worked in a circle are transcribed in full after the book's general star stitch definition; the “widen” star is the 4-loop star.
• Modernisation note: The materials say “cream and one of a contrasting color”; the colour directions say white and blue and also “draw the cream wool through”. White and cream are the same yarn. Blue is the contrasting colour.
• Modernisation note: Check: “Widen every 2 stars, and so on, increasing 1 star between widenings until you widen every 7 stars, which will be 8 rows” — the count of rounds does not work out exactly by simple arithmetic (round 2 widens every other star); follow the photograph and keep the crown flat.
• Modernisation note: Check: the brim's 7 widening rounds plus 4 plain rounds are read as 11 brim rounds in all.
• Modernisation note: Check: the picot edge is printed “Chain 4 s c into point where ch st started” (no comma); read as ch 4, then sc into that point.
• Modernisation note: Check: the rosettes for the illustration are staple work, but no staple width or loop count is printed; any rosette may be used.
• Modernisation note: Check: the opening directions for this hat are not in the source text used for traceability, so the excerpt is taken from the brim directions.