Crocheted Edge No. 6 on Hairpin Lace with Knot Stitch (1916): vintage crochet pattern

Materials

• Size 30, 40 or 50 mercerized cotton crochet thread — approximate; the original was Richardson's R. M. C. Cordonnet Special Nos. 30, 40 and 50
• Steel crochet hook (no hook size is printed in the book)
• Tapestry needle
• A 1 in (25 mm) hairpin lace loom or fork (the book's “one-inch staple”)
• Hook: No hook size is printed. Start with 1.65 mm (US steel 7) for size 30 thread, finer for sizes 40 and 50; change size to match the photograph.

Abbreviations (US terms)

ch

chain

sl st

slip stitch

tr

treble crochet

lp

loop

rep

repeat

row

row

Notes before you start

• Source: "No. 6" (No. 6), Richardsons' Book on Crocheted Edgings and Insertions (Richardson's Crochet Book No. 3), Richardson Silk Company, Chicago and New York, 1916. Public domain in the USA.
• As printed — materials: Richardson's R. M. C. Cordonnet Special Nos. 30, 40 and 50 (printed once for the whole page of directions); A one-inch staple (for the hairpin lace). Gauge: Not given.
• Modernisation note: Stitches are converted by this book's own key (“Abbreviations of Crochet Stitches”, book page 1), not by name. The key defines: chain stitch (ch st); slip stitch (sl st), drawing through the chain stitch and the loop together; single crochet (s c), insert, draw the thread through, thread over and through both loops — the modern US single crochet; double crochet (d c), thread over, insert, draw through, thread over and through 2 loops, thread over and through 2 loops — the modern US double crochet; treble crochet (t c), thread over twice and then work off 2 loops three times — the modern US treble; double treble crochet (d t c), thread over 3 times, otherwise as the treble — the modern US double treble; treble treble crochet (t t c), thread over 4 times — the modern US triple treble. So this book's heights already match modern US usage, and no shift of stitch names was needed: s c = sc, d c = dc, t c = tr, d t c = dtr, t t c = trtr.
• Modernisation note: The book's wording is written in modern US form: “thread over hook” / “over” / “over twice” = yo / yo twice; “skip” = sk; “repeat from *” = rep from *; st(s) = st(s); p = picot; sp = space. Ordinal row names (“First Row”, “Second Row”) are written Row 1, Row 2, and so on.
• Modernisation note: The printed paragraphs are split into one row or step per line; stitch order and counts are unchanged. Section headings added for navigation.
• Modernisation note: The materials line is printed once for the whole page of directions — “Materials: Richardson's R. M. C. Cordonnet Special Nos. 30, 40 and 50” — and not per design, so the same three thread sizes stand for every design on the page. Nothing else (no ball count, no braid size, no hook) is printed.
• Modernisation note: Check: no hook size is printed anywhere on the directions page. The metric hook suggested here is ours, read across to the modern US steel-hook scale for the thread sizes named (in which a higher number is finer); work a sample and change size until the work matches the photograph.
• Modernisation note: No gauge is printed for this design. Work a sample and change hook size until the lace lies flat and matches the photograph.
• Modernisation note: R. M. C. Cordonnet Special was a 1916 Richardson trade name with no exact modern equivalent. The modern equivalent given is an approximation only: mercerized six-cord cotton crochet thread of the same size number. The book's back pages list the maker's other threads (Cordonnet Art. 65, Perle Ball Cotton Art. 35 in sizes 3, 5, 8 and 12, Perle Cotton Art. 15B, Tat-It Cotton Art. 33), but none of them is named for these designs.
• Modernisation note: “Hairpin lace” is worked on a U-shaped staple (a modern hairpin lace loom or fork); the book's “one-inch staple” is the width between the prongs. The book prints no directions for making the hairpin strip itself.
• Modernisation note: Knot stitch is the book's own (key No. 15): draw the loop on the hook out to ¼ inch (6 mm), thread over and draw through the loop, insert the hook back through the one long loop, draw the thread through, making 2 loops on the hook, and thread over through both. “Double knot stitch” is read as two of those knots between fastenings, as the key's own second paragraph works them.
• Modernisation note: Check: “long t c” is not defined in the book's key, which gives only treble (thread over twice), double treble (thread over 3 times) and treble treble (thread over 4 times). The number of thread-overs for the 5 long trebles is not printed.
• Modernisation note: Check: the book does not say how many hairpin loops the fan row passes for each knot, beyond “fasten by sl st in next knot”.
• Modernisation note: Check: no colour is printed; the lace photographs as a plain light thread.
• Modernisation note: Finishing line (weaving in ends) added.
• Modernisation note: Metric conversions added; no measurement is printed in the original for this design.