Diamond Insertion in Filet Crochet

What we checked

• The block pattern is drawn 26 squares across by 40 down. It was read from the archive's page image two ways. First the ruled lines of the drawing were found and the darkness of each square between them was measured. Then, without using the lines, the frame was divided evenly into 26 by 40 and only the middle of each square was looked at. The two readings agreed in every one of the 1,040 squares, and every square was then marked on an enlarged scan and looked over by eye.
• 38 meshes: the drawing has 40 squares across the band, with a line of open squares outside the solid line on each side. The photo of the made piece shows a band about 38 meshes wide, not 40, and its edge looks solid. Without those two outer lines the band is 38 meshes, the count the book prints.
• Every row is 38 meshes: 115 stitches across, counting the 3 chain at the start as one.
• The border lines are the same on both sides: a solid line, then three open lines before the pattern begins.
• The fullest rows, rows 7, 8, 20 and 21, have 13 blocks and 25 spaces: 65 dc and 50 chains.
• The whole repeat has 298 blocks and 690 spaces.
• The drawing is one whole repeat. Its columns 2 to 26 are a mirror image about column 14, square for square, and column 1 is the middle of the crossed ribbons, where the next repeat begins. So the 26 rows repeat end to end.
• The written rows, read back into squares and turned back a quarter turn, match the 1914 block pattern square for square, and so does our chart.

How we read the old wording

• The two captions and the block pattern are the whole of the original for this piece. The book's page 3 explains how its block patterns are worked: "Space or mesh (s or sp). Chain 2, miss 2 sts of foundation, 1 d in next." "The foundation chain is always three times the number of spaces in the first row, plus six." "1st row. Make 1 d in the ninth chain from hook, * ch 2, miss 2 stitches of foundation, 1 d in next." "Each single block consists of 4 d. Two or more blocks consist of three times the number of blocks plus 1. Always make 5 chain in turning. This makes the first space. When the row begins with d, use three chain for turning."
• The band is worked the narrow way, 38 meshes to a row. The photo shows the rows running across the band, and "38 meshes" is the width across it. So the chart here is the 1914 block pattern given a quarter turn to the left: turn the old page a quarter turn to the left and the two match.
• The line of open squares drawn outside each solid edge is left off, as the printed 38 meshes requires and as the same book's Fig. 40 is made. A maker who wants it can add one space at each end of every row, which makes 40 meshes.
• Row 1 is the left-hand column of the block pattern and row 26 the right-hand column. The book does not say which end to begin at.
• This page is one repeat, 26 rows. The book does not say how long to make the band; repeat rows 1 to 26 for more. Row 1 is the middle of the crossed ribbons, so a band that should end as it began can work row 1 once more at the end.
• How the 1914 book counts it: the foundation chain is three times the number of spaces in the first row, plus six, and the first d goes in the ninth chain from the hook. That rule is for a first row of all spaces. Later rows turn with 5 chain when they begin with a space (the 5 chain make the first space) and with 3 chain when they begin with d.
• How this pattern counts it: every row of this band begins and ends with a solid block, so every row turns with 3 chain. The 3 chain count as the first dc. The foundation chain is three times the meshes plus three, 3 x 38 + 3 = 117, and the first real dc goes in the fourth chain from the hook.
• The book does not print a foundation rule for a first row that begins with a block; it says only to use three chain for turning. The fabric is the same either way: 115 stitches across, a post at each side of every mesh.

Nothing to correct in the original. The block pattern is clear, and its printed 38 meshes agrees with the drawing once the outer line of open squares on each side is left off.