Shell and Picot Insertion, Fig. 2 (1915): vintage crochet pattern

Materials

• Size 20 mercerized cotton crochet thread — approximate and ours; the book prints no thread number
• Steel crochet hook
• Tapestry needle for the ends
• Hook: Start with a 1.5 mm (US steel 6) hook — approximate, and ours: the book prints no hook size. Change size until the lace lies flat.

Abbreviations (US terms)

ch

chain

dc

double crochet

sh

shell

st

stitch

rep

repeat

row

row

FO

fasten off

Notes before you start

• Source: "Fig. 2" (Fig. 2), The Rundall Book of Edgings, Medallions, Insertions and Tatting, The Needlework Co., Marion, Iowa, 1915. Public domain in the USA.
• As printed — materials: Not given — the book prints no materials list, thread number or hook size for any design.. Gauge: Not given.
• Modernisation note: Stitches are converted by this book's own key (“ABBREVIATIONS”, scan page p-04, images/p-04.jpg), not by the look of the abbreviation or the date. The key is six lines: “ch. chain; sl. st. slip stitch; s. c. single crochet; d. c. double crochet (thread over hook once); t. c. treble crochet (thread over hook twice); st. stitch.” The two parentheses settle the ladder as MODERN US. “Thread over hook once” rules out the British convention, in which a double crochet takes no wrap at all and is the US single crochet — so this book is not British-style, unlike the 1913–1916 Priscilla books elsewhere in this collection. And because the key lists only four worked stitches and prints no half double crochet and no abbreviation for one, there is no room for the reading that Clark's 1923 printing elsewhere in this collection invites, where “D c” is a modern half double. So d. c. is the modern US double crochet and is written dc here, and t. c. at two wraps is the modern US treble, written tr. The key names s. c. without defining it; it is read as the modern US single crochet, which the book's own arithmetic confirms (see the note on stitch counts).
• Modernisation note: Check: the key names “s. c. single crochet” but does not define the movement, so it was confirmed from the working rows rather than assumed. Fig. 12's second row covers a ring in 5 s. c. to each of eight ch-3 spaces, forty stitches in all, and the third row then works 48 d. c. round the same circle — a count that only works if s. c. is the short stitch and d. c. the tall one. Fig. 9's first row steps its groups five chains apart from a foundation of 26, which agrees. s. c. is therefore the modern US single crochet throughout and is written sc.
• Modernisation note: Check: the book uses “picot” constantly but NEVER defines it and never states how many chains a picot takes — it is not in the abbreviations list and there is no general note. No picot length has been invented here. Work the picot at whatever length suits the thread, keeping it the same throughout the piece, and note that the number of picots the book asks for is printed and is reproduced exactly.
• Modernisation note: The book's wording is written in modern US form: ch. = ch; sl. st. = sl st; s. c. = sc; d. c. = dc; t. c. = tr; st. = st. “Needle” is the book's word for the crochet hook throughout and is written hook. “In 4th st. from needle” is written as 4th ch from hook. “Join” is written join or sl st to join according to what the row is doing, and “continue” is written as a repeat instruction.
• Modernisation note: The printed paragraphs are split into one row or round per line; stitch order and counts are unchanged. Ordinal row names (“1st row”, “2nd row”) are written Row 1, Row 2, and where the book calls a round a “row” while working in a ring, the note on that pattern says so. Section headings are added for navigation. The OCR of this scan garbles letters badly — it prints “d. c.” as “d. e.”, “ch.” as “eh.”, “1st” as “Ist” or “dst” and “join” as “jom” — and those quirks are kept in the excerpts and not in the rows, where the page image was used instead.
• Modernisation note: No materials are printed for this design. The book gives no thread brand, no thread number, no hook size, no gauge and no finished measurement anywhere in its pages — its entire front matter is the copyright line and the abbreviations list. Every modern thread size and hook suggested here is ours and approximate, read across from the scale of the photographed lace, not from the page.
• Modernisation note: No gauge is printed for this design; the book prints no gauge or tension anywhere, and no finished size either. Work a sample first and change hook size until the lace lies flat and the scallops do not cup.
• Modernisation note: No yardage is printed for this design. The book gives no quantity of thread for any design, so none is given here.
• Modernisation note: Check: no colour is printed for this design. The book names no colour anywhere. The plates photograph as a plain light thread against a dark ground, which is how the colour below is described.
• Modernisation note: Check: the book writes “shell” as if it were already defined, but it never defines it either. Reading it off the designs that spell the group out in full, a shell in this book is the group the first row establishes for that particular design — commonly 3 dc, ch 1, 3 dc worked into one stitch, and in some designs 4 dc with ch 2 between. Each pattern below states which group its own first row prints, and no shell has been carried across from one design to another.
• Modernisation note: Check: the book prints “The next five rows are same as 2nd row”, which is why Rows 3 to 7 are given as a single repeat above rather than written out; the wording is the book's own and no extra row has been added.
• Modernisation note: Check: the picot at the start of Row 2 is printed without a chain count, like every picot in this book. None has been invented.
• Modernisation note: Check: the book's Row 1 describes the shell as “3 d. c., ch. 1, 3 d. c.” but its Row 2 describes it as “2 d. c., ch. 1, 1 d. c.” — three stitches against two. Both readings are printed and both are quoted above unchanged rather than reconciled. Work a sample of two rows before committing to a length.