Anyone good at reading 1950s crochet patterns?

[PeterParkerSays]

I'm trying to make "A little Dutch Cap for Windy Days" straight faces here please ladies from a 1950s knitting and crochet book.

I have some rows where the instructions include "to last x number of stitches", e.g.:

1 d.c. into 1st st., 1 d.c. into next st.; rep. from to last 10 sts,. turn with 1 ch.

I would read this as "double crochet along the row until you get to 10 stitches from the end then stop and turn to go back the other way", but I now think that this is wrong.

I have 2 rows where I have to "rep. from * to last 18 sts.". If I stop 18 stitches from the end of the 1st row, and chain one to turn, I won't have made enough stitches for me to work back along for the 2nd row and stop when there are 18 stitches left.

I'm hoping someone has some experience with older crochet patterns, or a granny to hand who used these patterns at the time, who can tell me how to read this.

TIA.

I'm not much help sorry, but I would read it the same way as you - carry on with the double crochet but don't do the last 10, and turn there. I can't see what else it can mean, but the wording is confusing.

Is there any way you can copy the pattern and post it? Is is possible that you have made a mistake earlier in the pattern and that's why you don't have enough stitches?

I've attached a copy of the 2nd page of the pattern so this may appear too small to be of any real use. I'll see if I can crop it to just include some of the pattern.

A smaller bit here. I was hoping to get the cap finished to wear when we go camping on Wednesday but I've got an obvious wedge shaped back for the cap, ad then what seems should be the bit over the top of her head which is in stepped blocks because of this "to last 10 stitches" thing. I think that my interpretation has got to be wrong, and I'll have to unravel the last 18 rows

It's not very clear is it?

After the 3rd and 4th rows do you have a higher bit in the middle with bits sticking out at each end? (technical term!) A bit like a podium shape? And then for the 5th to 8th rows did you keep crocheting right along to the end, past where you turned previously so that you end up with a sort of oblong shape with a bump in the middle?

I can't read row 1. How many stitches do you start off the pattern with?

Yes, the podium thing is a good description. You make a rectangle for the back part and then crochet around 3 sides of it so Row one starts DC 24, then DC 27 and 24 DC so you're going around the left hand side of the back / rectangle, across the top and down the right hand side. you then do row 2 and, on row 3 perhaps stop 10 stitches from the end, and go back to stop 10 stitches from the other end. I just don't see how this podium thing, which by row 20 doesn't have 18 stitches left in the middle, will turn into the headscarf in the 1st photo.

I picked this up when I first learned to crochet. I seriously considered doing it as my first project. Thanks Christ I didn't.

So, you start this bit with 75 stitches (24+24+27). Have I got that right?

After row 3 you have 65 (because you don't go into the last 10) and
after row 4 you have 55 (same reason).

But, after row 5 you should have 75 again because in row 5 you crocheted into the ones that you didn't crochet into in the last two rows. Up to row 10, you are crocheting into 75 stitches in each row, and then the same pattern starts again, but with 14 at each end instead of 10.

By the time you get to the 19th row, you should still have 75 stitches on the go, if I have understood the pattern correctly, so should have enough to leave 18 at each end.

I think row 5 is the key, as you're going past the st where you turned so you're adding sts to the row again

sorry, x post with primrose, kids interrupted half way through posting

Ah! you stars, that's where I was going wrong. Only 12 rows to unravel then....

Last question, do I just tie off at the end of row 4 and start again at the start of row 5, because at the end of row 4 you're 10 stitches in, or would you chain one, turn and in row 5 do most of a row back along on top of row 4, and then a full complete 75 stitch row in row 6?

Thanks.

I'd ch1 turn at the end of row 4 for the start of row 5, then row 6 will start right at the end of your work and you'll do the same again, turn and work right to the very end again so you've added sts again

I think I would carry on with 65 stitches in row 5 and then 75 from there on. I wouldn't tie off, because the pattern does say for the 3rd and 4th rows 'turn, 1 ch and ….'

Hope it all works out. Can you post a picture when it's finished?

ooh yes, pics please when finished

Right, off to do 65 stitches for row 5 and 75 in row 6.

What the hell did the poor crocheters do in 1955 when there was no mumsnet to help?

Will post when it's finished.