Ladies' Cluny Lace Yoke for a Night-Gown, Size 16 (1915): vintage crochet pattern

Materials

• Size 12 pearl cotton in white — approximate; the original was one hank of Richardson's White Perle Crochet Cotton, Art. 15-B, No. 12 (hank length not printed)
• Narrow pink ribbon (original: No. 1 ribbon; width not printed)
• A night-gown to trim
• Steel crochet hook (original: No. 12 steel hook)
• Sewing needle and thread
• Hook: Start with 1.0 mm (US steel 12) — approximate; change size so the motifs lie flat

Abbreviations (US terms)

ch

chain

sl st

slip stitch

sc

single crochet

hdc

half double crochet

dc

double crochet

st

stitch

sts

stitches

sk

skip

rep

repeat

rnd

round

sp

space

Notes before you start

• Source: "Ladies' Night-Gown With Crocheted Cluny Lace Yoke—Size 16", Richardson's Crochet Book No. 2 (Complete Crochet Book No. 2), Richardson Silk Company, Chicago and New York, 1915. Public domain in the USA.
• As printed — materials: One Hank Richardson's White Perle Crochet Cotton, Art. 15 B, No. 12; One Piece Pink Ribbon No. 1; One Night-gown; One Steel Crochet Hook No. 12. Gauge: Not given.
• Modernisation note: From Richardson's Crochet Book No. 2. That book prints only an abbreviation list (ch = chain stitch, s c = single crochet, d c = double crochet, t c = treble crochet, t t c = triple treble crochet, p = picot, la = lacet, gr = group, sp = space, cl = clover leaf) with no worked descriptions, so the stitches are read by the same key its companion Book No. 1 prints in full: s c = sc, d c = dc, t c = tr, t t c = trtr (triple treble). Book No. 2's heights therefore match modern US usage as well.
• Modernisation note: This design and the Boudoir Cap print their own short abbreviation list for the Cluny lessons: S = Single Crochet, M = Mesh, D = Double Crochet, H D = Half Double Crochet. They are written sc, mesh, dc and hdc; “Sl. St.” is written sl st. The heights are the modern US ones.
• Modernisation note: The book's abbreviations are written in modern US form: ch sts = ch, s c = sc, d c = dc, t c = tr, d t c = dtr, sl st = sl st, p = picot, sp(s) = space(s), gr = group (block), la = lacet, cl = clover leaf; “skip” = sk; “repeat *” = rep from *. Ordinal row names are written Row 1, Row 2, and so on.
• 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 only as Richardson steel hook numbers, with no diameters, so no exact metric size can be read from the books. The metric sizes given are approximate starting points read across to the modern US steel-hook scale (in which a higher number is finer); work a swatch and change size to match 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 threads are 1915 Richardson trade names with no exact modern equivalent, and the books print no yardage except where quoted in the materials. The modern equivalents given are approximations only: R. M. C. Cordonnet and Cordonnet Special (the book says it “matches the D. M. C. thread”, sizes 3 to 150) as mercerized cotton crochet thread of the same size number; R. M. C. Perle Cotton (Art. 15 and 15-B in hanks, Art. 35 in balls, sizes 3, 5, 8 and 12) as modern pearl cotton of the same size; Richardson's Crochet and Knitting Silk (“Perfect”, ½ oz on the ball; “Our Art”, ¼ oz) as a fine silk or silk-blend crochet thread about the weight of size 10–20 cotton; Richardson's Tatting Silk (100 yd on the ball) as a fine hard-twisted silk thread about the weight of size 20–30 cotton; Bed Spread Thread on cones as a heavy cotton crochet thread about size 3–5. Grecian floss (a silk embroidery floss) is used only for embroidery where it is named.
• Modernisation note: Check: the publication year. The book is catalogued as 1915 and is recorded here as 1915, but its own title page carries a 1916 copyright line and the deposit stamp on book page 2 reads April 1916.
• Modernisation note: The joining round is printed as a second version of Round 4; it is given its own section so the first motif and the joined motifs are not confused.
• Modernisation note: Check: the lower-edge round is printed as one long sentence with “repeat, Ch 5, 1 S. in fourth Ch. St. on next space, 3 times”; it is read as repeating that whole group 3 times (and later twice), and is written with brackets to make that clear.
• Modernisation note: Check: the size is printed only as “Size 16”; no body measurements, neck size or finished yoke size is given, and the arrangement of the motifs follows the photograph.
• Modernisation note: Check: the colour is white with pink ribbon, as named in the materials.
• Modernisation note: Metric conversions added.