Crocheted Edge No. 3 with Nine-Double-Crochet Shells (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
• Novelty lace braid, if the braid foundation is used (the book names no braid); or work the foundation chain instead
• 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

dc

double crochet

st

stitch

rep

repeat

row

row

sh

shell

Notes before you start

• Source: "No. 3" (No. 3), 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). 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: Picot (p) is the book's own (key No. 10): 4 chain stitches, then insert the hook into the 4th chain stitch from the hook, thread over and draw through both loops. Where a design prints its own chain count for a picot, that count is kept.
• 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 design is worked onto a manufactured lace braid. The book neither names nor pictures the braid separately, and gives only its picots (p), points or medallions as the places to fasten into, so no substitute can be specified from the printed directions: match a modern insertion braid with the same number of picots, points or medallions per length, or the stitch counts that fasten into the braid will not come out.
• 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: Check: the book gives the braid foundation in full and says a foundation chain may be used instead, but prints no chain count or chain-loop spacing for that alternative.
• Modernisation note: Check: Row 2's “In each ch make shell of 9 d c” is read as each chain-5 loop of Row 1.
• Modernisation note: The book ends this design with “(See illustration)”, so the finished proportions are read from the photograph on the plate page.
• 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.