Hemstitch Scallop Edge, Fig. XX (1926): vintage crochet pattern

Materials

• Size 50 linen crochet thread — approximate; the book prints “No. 50 linen thread”
• Steel crochet hook — the book prints no needle number for this design
• A medium coarse linen, rolled and hemstitched before starting
• Tapestry needle for the ends
• Hook: Start with a 1.15 mm (US steel 10) hook — approximate. Change size until the edging lies flat.

Abbreviations (US terms)

ch

chain

sc

single crochet

sp

space

ch-sp

chain space

st

stitch

sts

stitches

rep

repeat

row

row

sk

skip

ps

puff stitch

lp

loop

WS

wrong side

RS

right side

Notes before you start

• Source: "Crocheted Edge, Fig. XX" (Fig. XX), Variety: Italian Cut Work and Filet Lace, Book No. 2, Carmela Testa & Co., Inc., Boston, Mass., 1926. Public domain in the USA.
• As printed — materials: No. 50 linen thread; No crochet needle number printed for this design; A medium coarse linen, the hem rolled and finished with Italian hemstitching. Gauge: Not given.
• Modernisation note: Stitches are converted by this book's own key (book page 29, image p-31.jpg), not by the look of the abbreviation. The key lists: ch.—chain; sl. st.—slip stitch; s.c.—single crochet; d.c.—double crochet; tr.c.—treble crochet; d.sl.st.—double slipstitch; p.—picot; o.m.—open mesh; s.m.—solid mesh. The same page defines the mesh: “Open mesh: 1 d.c.—ch. 2—skip 2 stitches of previous row—1 d.c.—repeat. Solid mesh: 1 d.c. into d.c. of previous row—1 d.c. into each chain—1 d.c. into next d.c. of previous row. One solid mesh is made up of 4 d.c. Two solid mesh are made up of 7 d.c.” A one-stitch-plus-two-chain space and a four-stitch block is the ordinary modern filet mesh, which is what settles the naming: this book's d.c. IS the modern US double crochet and its s.c. IS the modern US single crochet. That is a finding, not an assumption — a 1923 book already in this collection uses the older naming, where the same abbreviations mean stitches one step taller, and reading this book by that key would have made every design wrong.
• Modernisation note: The book's wording is written in modern US form: “needle” means the hook and is written hook; “the goods” means the linen the edge is worked onto and is written linen; “skip” = sk; “Repeat” = rep; st(s) = st(s). The scan's OCR garbles some of the printed ordinals and fractions; the excerpts keep what the page image actually prints.
• Modernisation note: The printed paragraphs are split into one row, round or step per line; stitch order and counts are unchanged. Section headings added for navigation. Ordinal row names (“1st row”, “2nd row”) are written Row 1, Row 2.
• Modernisation note: No gauge is printed for this design — the book prints no gauge, tension or mesh-per-inch count anywhere. Work a sample and change hook size until the piece lies flat.
• Modernisation note: Check: no colour is printed for this design. The plates photograph as a plain light thread on light linen, and the book names no shade for any of its crochet.
• Modernisation note: Where the book prints a thread number it is a 1926 cotton or linen thread number, read as roughly equal to the modern crochet thread size of the same number — approximate only.
• Modernisation note: No yardage is printed for this design. The book prints no ball counts or thread quantities anywhere, so none is given here.
• Modernisation note: Check: the book prints a thread number for this edge but no crochet-needle number, though it printed one for Fig. XV at the head of the page. Nothing is invented here to fill the gap.
• Modernisation note: Check: Italian hemstitching is not explained in this book. Its page 34 calls the same stitch Punto Quadro and says outright that it “is explained in Book No. 1” — the previous volume, which is not held here. The hemstitched foundation therefore has to come from elsewhere; only the crochet worked into it is printed here.
• Modernisation note: Check: the book prints “The material in the illustration is a medium coarse linen” as a description of what was photographed, not as a requirement. It is recorded in the original materials in those words.
• Modernisation note: The book numbers only the second row, calling it “second row”; the first is left unnumbered. Both are numbered here.
• Modernisation note: No finished measurement is printed; the edge is worked round the piece it trims, so its length is set by that piece.