Figure 6 Hexagon Table Mat (1915): vintage crochet pattern

Materials

• Size 10 crochet thread — approximate modern equivalent of the book's No. 10 crochet cotton
• A fine steel hook, about 1.5 mm (US steel 8) — the book gives no number for this design
• Large tapestry needle for the ends
• Hook: Start with 1.5 mm (US steel 8) — the book asks only for “a fine steel crochet needle”; change size until the mat lies flat.

Abbreviations (US terms)

ch

chain

sl st

slip stitch

sc

single crochet

dc

double crochet

st

stitch

sts

stitches

sk

skip

rep

repeat

rnd

round

BLO

back loop only

inc

increase

RS

right side

WS

wrong side

Notes before you start

• Source: "Figure 6. Hexagon Table Mat", The Priscilla Crochet Book: Centerpieces and Doilies (edited by Belle Robinson), The Priscilla Publishing Company, Boston, 1915. Public domain in the USA.
• As printed — materials: Crochet cotton No. 10; A fine steel crochet needle. Gauge: Not given.
• Modernisation note: Stitches converted by the book's own “Explanation of Stitches” (printed page 3), not by name. This book uses the older British-style naming, so its stitch names do NOT match modern US names: chain (ch) = ch; slip stitch (sl) = sl st; “double” (d), hook through work, draw thread through, “thread over again and through both loops” = modern US single crochet (sc) — the book adds that this stitch “has been, especially in wool crochet, called ‘single crochet’”; “half treble” (h t), thread over, through work, then “thread over and through all three sts at once” = modern US half double crochet (hdc); “treble” (t), thread over, through work, “thread over and through two loops, thread over and again through two loops” = modern US double crochet (dc); “double treble” (d t), thread over twice and worked off by twos three times = modern US treble crochet (tr); “long treble” (l t) or “triple treble” (t t), thread over three times, worked off by twos = modern US double treble (dtr); “quadruple treble” (q t), thread over four times = modern US triple treble. Every stitch below has been rewritten in the modern US name and abbreviation on that basis.
• Modernisation note: The book's picot (p) is defined on the same page: it is formed on a chain by joining the last four stitches (or any given number) in a ring by working a slip stitch or a single crochet in the fourth stitch from the hook, and “a sl is understood unless otherwise designated.” Picots are written out as “picot” with the chain count the design gives, since the site's abbreviation list has no picot entry.
• Modernisation note: The book's abbreviations are written in modern US form: d = sc, h t = hdc, t = dc, d t = tr, l t = dtr, st(s) = st(s), sp = sp, “miss” = sk, “thread over (the needle)” = yo, “repeat” = rep, “needle” (for the crochet hook) = hook. Ordinal row and round names (“1st round”, “2d round”) are written Rnd 1, Rnd 2 and Row 1, Row 2. Section headings (Border, Edge, Heading) are the book's own where it prints them. The book's British spelling “centrepiece” is kept inside quoted names.
• Modernisation note: The book prints each design as one or two solid paragraphs; these have been split into one round, row or step per line. Stitch order and counts are unchanged. Where the book's own repeat markers (*, **) span several lines they are kept as printed.
• Modernisation note: Thread sizes are the 1915 numbering. “No. N crochet cotton” is given as modern size N crochet thread, which is an approximation: modern size numbering runs the same way (higher number = finer thread) but the exact diameters are not identical. The book states that where it says “crochet cotton” it means the hard-twisted cotton sold as Cordonnet, Cordonnet Special, Cordichet, Kord-net and similar. No yardage is printed for any design, so none is given here.
• Modernisation note: Metric conversions added.
• Modernisation note: The book's “slipper rib” is single crochet worked under the back loop only, turning each round, which makes the ridged fabric of the mat.
• Modernisation note: Check: the middle of this design is written as running instructions rather than numbered rounds (“Repeat 3d round until there are 4 ribs”, “Then work 6 rounds of d”); those passages are transcribed as steps in the order printed, since the book supplies no round numbers for them.