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Hexagonal Hand Screen in Blue Silk and Gold (Victorian): vintage crochet pattern
A Victorian hand-held face screen: a hexagon of dark blue purse silk in treble crochet with small silk and gold-thread flowers worked into its border, six large gold flowers radiating from the centre, made up over a wire frame covered with white silk and edged with silk fringe.
By the crochetpatterns.io editorial team · Updated · Editorial policy · pattern testing in progress
| Detail | Value |
|---|---|
| Skill level | Advanced |
| Yarn weight | Lace (#0) |
| Yardage | As printed: 5 skeins blue silk and 6 skeins gold thread (skein length not printed). |
| Hook | 0.9 mm |
| Gauge | Not printed. Work to the size of the article. |
| Finished size | Not printed. The hexagon is worked until there are 33 tr in each section. |
| Time | about 6 hours |
Materials
- Dark blue silk thread about the thickness of size 20–30 crochet cotton (period: purse silk), 5 skeins as printed
- Fine metallic gold crochet thread (period: “fine and pure gold thread”), 6 skeins as printed
- 2 yd (1.8 m) dark blue silk fringe 2 in (5 cm) deep
- 2 yd (1.8 m) fine wire for the frame; ¾ yd (0.7 m) white corded silk (period: gros-de-Naples); a screen handle
- Sewing needle and silk thread; tapestry needle
- Hook: Start with a 0.9 mm (US steel 13) hook and adjust to suit your silk; the book names “Penelope hook, No. 18”, and no gauge is printed. Work rather tightly, as the book directs.
Yarn Kit & Substitution Options
This pattern calls for 350 yards of weight #0 yarn. Select a suggested yarn to see required skeins and estimated cost:
Caron Simply Soft · 100% Acrylic
315 yds per skein · High-yield yardage, silky no-scratch texture
2 skeins required
approx. $$10.98 total
Abbreviations (US terms)
- chain
- slip stitch
- single crochet
- double crochet
- treble crochet
- stitch
- stitches
- round
- repeat
- skip
- loop
Notes before you start
- Source: "Hand Screen, in Crochet", The Ladies' Work-Book, John Cassell, La Belle Sauvage Yard, Ludgate Hill, London (no year printed). Public domain in the USA.
- As printed — materials: 5 skeins of rich dark blue purse silk, 6 skeins of fine and pure gold thread; Penelope hook, No. 18; 2 yards of dark blue silk fringe, 2 inches deep; 2 yards of fine wire, and 3/4 yard of white gros-de-Naples. A pair of screen handles.. Gauge: Not given.
- Modernisation note: Stitch names converted to modern US terms strictly by the book's own crochet lesson: “chain” / “ch.” = ch; “slip” / “slip-stitch” = sl st; “single crochet” / “s.c.” = sc; “double crochet” / “double” / “d.c.” = dc; “treble crochet” / “treble” / “t.c.” = tr; “long treble” / “long t.c.” = dtr; “long” / “l.” = dc (one wrap, from the book's “double long … twisting the cotton twice”); “open square” = dc, ch 2, sk 2; “close square” = 3 dc; “diminished” / “contracted” stitch = dc2tog; “miss” = sk; “loop” (of a chain or row) = st. In this book “double crochet” means the same stitch as the modern US dc, and “single crochet” the modern sc.
- Modernisation note: Period wording modernised: “needle” written as “hook”; “commence” as “begin”; “unite” / “close into a round” as “join into a ring”; “round loop” as “ring”; “receipt” as “directions”; “scollop” as “scallop”. Round and row numbers are kept as printed.
- Modernisation note: Printed paragraphs split into one step per round, row or instruction; no stitches, counts or rows added, removed or reordered. Words in square brackets or marked “Check:” are ours, and the printed wording is quoted wherever a reading was needed.
- Modernisation note: Period purse silk, netting silk and crochet silk have no exact modern equivalent; a silk (or fine mercerised) thread about the thickness of size 20–30 crochet cotton is suggested. “Ombré” silk is shaded from light to dark along the strand; “gold thread” was a metallic gold thread.
- Modernisation note: The book's “Penelope hook, No. 18” is out of line with the Penelope numbers used elsewhere in the book (Nos. 1–5); it was probably a fine steel hook by gauge number. The modern hook is an approximate suggestion only.
- Modernisation note: No yardage is printed and none is estimated.
- Modernisation note: Colour swatches are approximate modern readings of the period colour names; they are not in the book. “Cerise” is a deep cherry pink; “maize” a soft yellow; “stone-colour” and “drab” pale greyish browns; “slate” a blue-grey.
- Modernisation note: Check: “26 ch., close in 19th for a round” is read as leaving a 19-ch stem (the directions later work “down the 19 ch.”), so the ring is formed by the last 7 ch.
- Modernisation note: Check: the small flowers that go “over the centre of each 5 chain which form the corners” are worked “in the same way” as the silk flowers but in gold thread; the book does not say whether they are worked into the sc round or made separately and sewn on.
- Modernisation note: Check: the number of rounds needed to reach 33 tr per section is not printed; each round adds 2 tr per section (5, 7, 9 … 33).
- Modernisation note: Check: the book says only “Work a chain all round, catching up the points of the flowers at regular intervals”; chain lengths are not printed.
- Modernisation note: The engraving is referred to where the book says so; the directions themselves are complete enough to work from, but placement and joining of separate pieces follow the illustration.
Row progress: 0 of 4 done (0%)
Stitches
0 of 4 done- Slip-stitch (book's definition): “made by drawing a thread at once through any given stitch and the loop which is on the needle.” = sl st.Mark row complete
- Single crochet, “s.c.” (book's definition): “Having a loop on the needle, insert the hook in a stitch, and draw the thread through in a loop. You then have two on the hook; draw the thread through both at once.” = sc.Mark row complete
- Double crochet, “d.c.” (book's definition): “Twist the thread round the hook before inserting it in the stitch, through which you draw the thread in a loop. Three loops being then on the needle, draw the thread through two, and then through the one just formed and the remaining one.” = dc.Mark row complete
- Treble crochet, “t.c.”, and long treble, “long t.c.” (book's definition): “worked in the same manner; in the former the thread is put twice, in the latter three times, round the hook, before inserting it into the stitch.” = tr and dtr.Mark row complete
Working on:
Slip-stitch (book's definition): “made by drawing a thread at once through any given stitch and the loop which is on the needle.” = sl st.
Continue this pattern
The rest of the Hexagonal Hand Screen in Blue Silk and Gold (Victorian) pattern is in the Vintage Crochet Hats, Bags & Accessories
Still to come in the full pattern:
- Large gold flowers (make 6)
- Screen (beginning in the centre)
- Finishing
Included with 202 patterns for $12 — $0.06 per pattern.
Errata
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Frequently asked questions
Where is the Hand Screen, in Crochet pattern from?
It was published as "Hand Screen, in Crochet" in The Ladies' Work-Book by John Cassell, La Belle Sauvage Yard, Ludgate Hill, London (no year printed). The publication is in the public domain in the United States; this version is transcribed and modernised by crochetpatterns.io.
What yarn or thread do I need for the Hand Screen, in Crochet?
Silk thread about size 20–30 (period: purse silk). As printed: 5 skeins blue silk and 6 skeins gold thread (skein length not printed).
What hook should I use?
Start with a 0.9 mm (US steel 13) hook and adjust to suit your silk; the book names “Penelope hook, No. 18”, and no gauge is printed. Work rather tightly, as the book directs. Gauge: Not printed. Work to the size of the article.
