Scarf in Shell and Star Stitch with Fringe (1912): vintage crochet pattern

Materials

• Fine (CYC #2) soft, lofty wool yarn — approximate; the original was about 10 skeins of Shetland floss, including the fringe (skein weight and length not printed)
• Crochet hook (original: medium-sized bone hook)
• A card for winding the fringe
• Tapestry needle
• Hook: Start with 4 mm (US G-6) — approximate; no measurement is printed, and the star loops should be drawn out loosely and evenly

Abbreviations (US terms)

ch

chain

sc

single crochet

dc

double crochet

st

stitch

sts

stitches

lp

loop

yo

yarn over

BLO

back loop only

sp

space

rep

repeat

row

row

Notes before you start

• Source: "Scarf", Priscilla Wool Crochet Book (ed. Lola Burks Hettich), The Priscilla Publishing Company, Boston, 1912. Public domain in the USA.
• As printed — materials: Material required, about 10 skeins Shetland floss and a medium-sized bone 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: This design's star stitch has 6 lps (drawn up in the ch, the back loops of the shell and the eye of the last star) and is defined in its own Row 2; the book's general 5-lp star stitch is not used here. The 2 dc “closed into 1 st at top” in the fringe heading is a modern dc2tog worked into one place, kept in words.
• Modernisation note: Check: the book does not say whether the scalloped edge is worked along one or both long sides, or whether the fringe goes on one or both ends; the photograph shows fringe at the ends.
• Modernisation note: Check: in the ends of scarf row, the “spaces between shells” are read as the spaces along the short ends, between the shells of the rows.
• Modernisation note: The yarn color is not printed; the scarf photographs as white.
• Modernisation note: Finishing line (weaving in ends) added.