Ripple Shawl in Knot Stitch (1912): vintage crochet pattern

Materials

• Fine (CYC #2) soft, lofty wool yarn — approximate; the original was Shetland floss: 9 skeins White and 2 skeins colored (skein weight and length not printed)
• Crochet hook (original: medium-sized bone hook)
• Tapestry needle
• Hook: Start with 4 mm (US G-6) — approximate; the hook matters less than keeping each knot stitch about ¾ in (2 cm) long, as printed

Abbreviations (US terms)

ch

chain

sl st

slip stitch

sc

single crochet

dc

double crochet

tr

treble crochet

st

stitch

sts

stitches

rep

repeat

row

row

Notes before you start

• Source: "Ripple Shawl", Priscilla Wool Crochet Book (ed. Lola Burks Hettich), The Priscilla Publishing Company, Boston, 1912. Public domain in the USA.
• As printed — materials: 9 skeins of white and 2 of colored Shetland floss; Medium-sized bone hook. Gauge: Not given. “The k sts in body of shawl are about three-quarters of an inch long. If desired, they might be made one inch long from the directions 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: Knot stitch is the book's own name for the long-loop single crochet mesh known today as Solomon's knot or love knot; its definition is quoted as the first step of each design that uses it. As the book says, “some crocheters refer to it as knot stitch, and others to knot stitch as just half the group”; the book's word “group” (2 knots) is kept.
• 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: 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 “k st” is written “knot st”; its “double knot stitch” is read as a full group of knot stitch (2 knots), and “fasten down” / “fasten in” as the sc that anchors a knot stitch to the row below.
• Modernisation note: The book calls the rounds of this circular shawl “rows”; its word is kept.
• Modernisation note: The book's introduction advises that the stitch be made rather loosely but the knot drawn tightly, for a fluffy shawl that keeps its shape and cannot sag.
• Modernisation note: Check: in Row 5, “2 plain” is read as 2 knot stitches fastened as usual; the book says the 2 ch and the 3 dc make the 4 widenings. How the dc is anchored in later widening rows is not explained beyond “3 d c in 3 d c of last row”.
• Modernisation note: Check: the number of rounds between the 40-knot round, the 8-widening rounds and the 16-widening rounds is set only by the stitch counts printed (10 and 22 sts between widenings).
• Modernisation note: Check: the colored yarn is not given a color name; the second picot row and the shells do not say which color is used — the photograph shows a mostly white border.
• Modernisation note: Check: “fasten down to k with sl st” and “fasten to first t c of shell with sl st” use a slip stitch where the body uses sc; kept as printed.
• Modernisation note: Finishing line (weaving in ends) added. Metric conversions added.