Crochet Chemise Yoke (1888): vintage crochet pattern

Materials

• A fine crochet cotton — the book names German crochet cotton and prints no size or quantity
• Steel crochet hook to suit the thread
• Narrow ribbon to run through the last row of holes at the neck
• Tapestry needle for the ends
• Hook: Check: the book prints no hook number for this design. It names a hook size only twice in its whole 114 pages — “a long bone hook No. 6” for the Crochet Dress for Child on page 60 and “a crochet hook No. 12” for the Teapot-Cosy on page 98, both of which are in this file. Neither is an 1888 maker's size that reads across to a modern number for anything else. Match the hook to whatever thread or yarn you choose, and change size until the work lies flat.

Abbreviations (US terms)

ch

chain

sl st

slip stitch

sc

single crochet

dc

double crochet

tr

treble crochet

cl

cluster

st

stitch

sts

stitches

rep

repeat

sk

skip

sp

space

lp

loop

rnd

round

row

row

Notes before you start

• Source: "Crochet Chemise Yoke", Instructions for Crochet Work, Western Lace Manufacturing Company, 218 State Street, Chicago, Ill., 1888. Public domain in the USA.
• As printed — materials: “Chemise Yoke on page 91 is made of German crochet cotton.” (book page 114); “You can run narrow ribbon in around the neck on the last row of holes.” (printed with the design, book page 93); No thread number, hook number, quantity or gauge is printed.. Gauge: Not given.
• Modernisation note: Stitches are converted by this book's own printed key, “DESCRIPTION OF TERMS USED IN CROCHET”, book page 5 (image p-011.jpg) — not by the look of the abbreviation and not from the date. The key settles the question outright: this 1888 Chicago book uses MODERN US stitch names, the same ladder our 1891 Butterick uses and the opposite of the British-style ladder in the 1913 to 1916 Priscilla books. Its “Single Crochet” is: “Pass the hook through a loop of the last row, bring cotton through, throw cotton around the needle and pass it through the two loops on the needle.” One pull-up and two loops worked off together — the modern US single crochet, not a British double. Its “Double Crochet” is: “Throw cotton once around the needle, pass the hook through a loop of the preceding row, bring cotton through, then take cotton up and bring it through two loops twice.” One wrap before insertion, three loops worked off two at a time twice — the modern US double crochet, not a US single. Its “Half Double Crochet” is: “Like double crochet, only pass the cotton through the three loops on the needle, instead of passing it through two loops twice.” — the modern US half double. Its “Treble” is: “Throw the cotton twice around the needle, and work as double crochet, but bring cotton through two loops three times.” — the modern US treble. Its “Double Double Crochet” is: “Throw the cotton over the needle three times, work as double crochet, but draw the cotton through two loops four times.” — the modern US double treble, written dtr below. The WRAP COUNTS are the decisive evidence and they are printed rather than inferred: none for single, one for double, two for treble, three for double double, with the loops worked off two at a time in every case. So this book's s. c., d. c., h. d. c., t. and d. d. c. are written sc, dc, hdc, tr and dtr below with no shift of height.
• Modernisation note: Two of the book's terms do NOT map straight across, and both are handled explicitly rather than quietly. Its “Close Chain Stitch” (page 5) is: “Insert the hook in the loop of preceding row, and draw cotton through it and the loop on the needle at the same time.” That is what we call a slip stitch worked into the fabric, and it is written sl st below. Its own “Slip Stitch” (page 6) is a different move — a joining, not a stitch: “This stitch is used in joining. Take the hook from the last loop worked, pass it through the loop where the work has to be joined; then take the first loop spoken of and draw it through.” Where a design uses sl. st. in that joining sense the row below says join with a sl st and keeps the book's own wording; where it plainly means travelling along a chain or a row, the row says sl st. Its “Ribbed Crochet” (page 6) is: “Make a single crochet in the back loop of each stitch of the row last worked. At the end of every row make a chain stitch and turn the work; then begin the next row.” — written sc in blo below.
• Modernisation note: The book prints its own short table, “ABBREVIATIONS USED IN DIRECTIONS”, book page 6 (image p-012.jpg): “l. — Loop. ch. st. — Chain Stitch. cl. ch. st. — Close Chain Stitch. s. c. — Single Crochet. d. c. — Double Crochet. h. d. c. — Half Double Crochet. t. — Treble. d. d. c. — Double Double Crochet. p. — Picot. r. c. — Ribbed Crochet. sl. st. — Slip Stitch.” Note that its letter for treble is a bare “t.”, not “tr.”; several designs also write “T” or “t. c.” for the same stitch, and all three are written tr below. Most designs spell the stitches out in words anyway, and both forms are written in modern shorthand here.
• Modernisation note: The book's wording is written in modern US form: “needle” always means the crochet hook and is written hook; “set the needle into” = insert the hook in; “fill the ring with” = work the stitches into the ring; “miss” = sk; “catch down” and “fasten” = join with a sl st or a sc, according to what the row is doing; “throw the cotton over the needle” = yo; “d. c. 3 times in the same place” is written 3 dc in the same place; “repeat from *” = rep from *. Ordinal row names (“Ist Row”, “2d Row”, “3d Row”) are written Row 1, Row 2, Row 3, and Round where the design works in the round. The book's own spellings are kept in the design names as printed.
• Modernisation note: Several of these designs print as one solid paragraph with no row numbering at all, the new row marked only by the word “turn”. Those are split here into one row or step per line at the book's own “turn”, and the book's own sub-headings (BORDER, SCALLOP FOR TOP OF BOOTEE, For the Heading and so on) are kept as section headings. Stitch order and counts are unchanged and nothing is added.
• Modernisation note: The scanned text of this book carries the usual optical-reading slips, and every figure below was read back against the 220 dpi page image rather than trusted from the scan: the scan's “Ist” is 1st, its “Sth” is 8th, its “LO” and “lO” are 10, its “+” and “-L” standing in place of a number are the figure 4, its “§” is 5, its “Y” and “)” are 9, its “S” inside a number is 8, and its “e”, “¢”, “«” and “@” are all the letter c, so that “d. ec.”, “d. «.”, “cd. c.” and “a. c.” are all d. c. Where the scan and the printed page disagree, the printed page is followed and the disagreement is recorded as a Check note.
• Modernisation note: No gauge is printed for this design. The book prints a gauge exactly once in its whole 114 pages — for the Crochet Dress for Child on page 60, which is in this file — and gives none for any other design. Work a sample and change hook size until the piece lies flat.
• Modernisation note: The book prints no materials at the head of any design. It gathers them instead into one list at the back, book page 113 (image p-119.jpg), keyed to the page each design appears on rather than to its name. The line covering this design is quoted verbatim in the original materials above. Nothing is invented to fill the gaps that list leaves.
• Modernisation note: No yardage is printed for this design, and none is estimated here.
• Modernisation note: Check: no colour is printed for this design. The engraving photographs as a plain light thread. White and écru are recorded here as the usual period choices for the thread the book names, not as this design's printed colour.
• Modernisation note: This yoke is transcribed where the book's other garments are not because its counts close. The wheel has 18 loops of five chain: Row 1 makes 18 doubles, Row 2 puts a double between every pair of them for 18 chain-2 holes, Row 3 puts a cluster in every hole with a chain-3 between for 18 holes, and Row 4 makes a loop of 5 chain in each. The joining then checks against that 18 twice over — a wheel in a strip is joined by 3 loops on each side, which leaves 18 − 3 − 3 = 12, and the book says “6 loops on each side”; a shoulder wheel leaves those same 12 split as “only 3 loop on the inside or neck and 9 on outside”. And the wheel total checks: 6 across the chest plus 6 across the back plus 4 for each shoulder plus 3 under each arm is exactly the 26 the book asks for.
• Modernisation note: Row 3's clusters are the book's own wording and are left in it: “t. c. in first hole, crochet all off but 2 stitches, t. c. in same hole, crochet off 2 at a time until you have them all off the needle” is a two-treble cluster, and the starred repeat that follows is a three-treble cluster. The book gives them no name and none is invented; cl is listed in the abbreviations only because the rows describe clusters.
• Modernisation note: Check: the scan reads Row 1 of the wheel as “chain 3, d. ce. in ring LS times, join”; the printed page (book page 92, image p-098.jpg) reads “chain 3, d. c. in ring 18 times, join”. The scan's LS is 18, and 18 is what the rest of the design needs.
• Modernisation note: Check: the scan reads the shoulder joining as “only 3 loop on the inside or neck and 9 on outside”; the page reads the same, including the book's own “3 loop” for 3 loops. It is kept as printed.
• Modernisation note: Check: the scan reads the wheel count as “You will want 26 wheels … 36 bust”; the page (book page 91, image p-097.jpg) reads 26 and 36.
• Modernisation note: Check: the scan reads the sleeve finish as “make 24 trebles, 3 im each loop and half loops”; the page (book page 93, image p-099.jpg) reads “make 24 trebles, 3 in each loop and half loops”.
• Modernisation note: Check: the book prints no depth for the yoke and no length for the sleeve band. Only the bust figure is given, and nothing is supplied beyond it.
• Modernisation note: Not a reprint of any of the three Chemise Yokes in “Home Work” (1891): its No. 130 begins on a ring of 12 chain worked in picot scallops, its No. 131 on a ring of 8 with 8 doubles and four-treble groups, and its No. 132 on a ring of 6 with 36 doubles. None of them is this wheel of 18 doubles opened into eighteen loops of five chain. The name collides; the directions do not.