Slipper Stitch Face Cloth (1914): vintage crochet pattern

Materials

• Soft cotton yarn, light to medium weight — the original was soft knitting cotton No. 10 (thickness not printed)
• Blue perle cotton (size not printed for this cloth; size 5 is used for the book's other face cloths)
• Tapestry needle
• Hook: Start with 4 mm (US G-6) for the body — approximate; 29 ribs should make the cloth about square and about 9 in (23 cm). Edge: 1.75 mm (US steel 4), approximate

Abbreviations (US terms)

ch

chain

sc

single crochet

BLO

back loop only

st

stitch

sk

skip

row

row

rep

repeat

Notes before you start

• Source: "Face-Cloth" (No. 501), Priscilla Juniors' Crochet Book (Belle Robinson), The Priscilla Publishing Co., Boston, 1914. Public domain in the USA.
• As printed — materials: soft knitting cotton, No. 10; medium-size bone needle; blue Pearl cotton (for the edge); steel crochet-needle, No. 8 (for the edge). Gauge: Not given.
• Modernisation note: Stitches converted by the book's own definitions (pages 3–6), not by name: chain stitch (“ch”) = ch; slip stitch (“sl” — “made with the needle in the loop, a loop pulled through the work and through the loop on the needle”) = sl st; double crochet (“d” — “made with the needle in the loop, a loop drawn through the work and another loop drawn through both”) = modern US single crochet (sc); treble crochet (“t” — “another loop over the needle, a loop drawn through the work (making three loops on the needle), then a loop is drawn through two on the needle, leaving two loops on the needle; another loop drawn through these two finishes the treble”) = modern US double crochet (dc); double treble crochet (“d t” — “two loops over the needle, one loop drawn through the work, when there will be four loops on the needle”, then worked off two at a time three times) = modern US treble crochet (tr). The 1914 names are one step taller than modern US names (they match modern UK usage), so every printed “d” is written sc, every “t” dc and every “d t” tr.
• Modernisation note: The book's words and letters are written as modern US abbreviations: ch = ch, sl = sl st, d = sc, t = dc, d t = tr; “needle”, “crochet-needle” or “hook” = hook; “thread over needle (hook)” = yo; “draw thread through (the work)” = draw up a lp; “miss” = sk; “over ch” or “over each chain” = in the ch-sp; “fasten the thread” = fasten off; ordinal names (“1st row”, “2d round”) = Row 1, Rnd 2. Repeats between stars are written “*… ; rep from *” as printed; the book's own rule: “When you see the little stars before and after any directions, whether long or short, the work directed is to be repeated once, or more times.”
• Modernisation note: Slipper stitch is the book's name for its back-loop single crochet (“Double crochet back and forth, always taking up the back loop of the stitch whether on the right side or wrong side”; the back loop is “the loop farthest from you”) = modern sc in back loop only (sc blo). The book's word “rib” (two rows) is kept.
• Modernisation note: The book's running paragraphs are split into one row, round or step per line; stitch order and counts unchanged. Section headings added for navigation. Cross-references to other pages of the book are replaced by the stitch lesson itself, copied at the start of the design.
• Modernisation note: Hooks are printed as 1914 steel crochet-needle numbers (the book: “from No. 1 (a very large hook, almost as large as a medium-size bone hook) to No. 14, which is very fine”) or as bone, rubber and amber hooks of “small” or “medium” size, with no diameters. The modern hook given is an approximate starting point only, chosen for the thread or yarn and tied to any printed measurement.
• Modernisation note: No stitch gauge is printed anywhere in the book; work a swatch and match any printed finished measurement.
• Modernisation note: Period threads are 1914 trade descriptions with no exact modern equivalent; modern choices are approximate. Pearl cotton Nos. 3, 5 and 8 are the same numbering as modern perle cotton; Cordonnet Nos. 2, 30 and 50 are given as the nearest modern crochet-thread sizes; carpet warp is modern cotton rug warp; soft knitting cotton has no printed thickness and is suggested by the hook the book pairs with it.
• Modernisation note: Yardage is never printed; the book gives balls, skeins, spools or hanks only (or nothing), so no yardage is estimated.
• Modernisation note: Row 1 stitch count (54 sc) follows from the printed chain of 55 with 1 ch skipped.
• Modernisation note: Check: the book does not say whether the first row is worked in back loops; there is no previous row, so it is worked into the chain.
• Modernisation note: Metric conversions added.