Neck Protector Shoulder Cape with Puff Stitch (1912): vintage crochet pattern

Materials

• Light (CYC #3) wool yarn — approximate; the original was 4 skeins of Germantown (skein weight and length not printed)
• Super fine (CYC #1) wool yarn — approximate; the original was 1 skein of Saxony (its use is not stated)
• Crochet hook (hook not printed)
• 3 yd (2.7 m) satin ribbon (original: No. 5 satin ribbon; width not printed)
• Tapestry needle
• Hook: Start with 4 mm (US G-6) — approximate; no hook or measurement is printed

Abbreviations (US terms)

ch

chain

sc

single crochet

dc

double crochet

st

stitch

sts

stitches

yo

yarn over

lp

loop

rep

repeat

row

row

ps

puff stitch

Notes before you start

• Source: "Neck Protector", Priscilla Wool Crochet Book (ed. Lola Burks Hettich), The Priscilla Publishing Company, Boston, 1912. Public domain in the USA.
• As printed — materials: Four skeins of Germantown; 1 skein Saxony; 3 yards of No. 5 satin ribbon. 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 book's puff stitch (yo, draw up a lp, yo, draw up a lp in the same place, 5 lps, draw through all) is a small modern puff stitch (ps) of 2 loops; its printed definition is kept in Row 3.
• Modernisation note: “Taking up both stitches” is written as “through both loops”.
• Modernisation note: Check: “fasten by a s c” after each puff is kept as printed; it may mean a single chain-like closing stitch rather than a separate sc into the next stitch. Keep the puffs one per sc of the row below.
• Modernisation note: Check: “The next 18 rows are repetitions of the first three rows” — read as the sequence of an increase sc row (as Rows 1 and 4), a plain sc row (Row 2) and a puff row (Row 3), 6 times. Keep the puffs on the same rows as the photograph.
• Modernisation note: Check: the materials list 1 skein of Saxony but the directions never say where it is used (perhaps the border). The quantity figure “1” is partly unclear on the page.
• Modernisation note: Metric conversions added.