Oval Scroll Insertion in Filet Crochet

What we checked

• The block pattern is drawn 32 squares across by 24 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 32 by 24 and only the middle of each square was looked at. The two readings agreed in every one of the 768 squares, and every square was then marked on an enlarged scan and looked over by eye.
• 24 meshes: the solid band along each edge is printed as plain black, with no ruled lines in it. Measured against the ruled squares beside it, it is two squares deep. Two solid lines, three open lines, 14 lines of pattern, three open and two solid make 24, the count the book prints.
• The photo of the made piece shows the same edge: solid, then three lines of open mesh, then the oval.
• Every row is 24 meshes: 73 stitches across, counting the 3 chain at the start as one.
• The fullest rows, rows 13, 14, 18 and 19, have 12 blocks and 12 spaces: 49 dc and 24 chains.
• The whole repeat has 308 blocks and 460 spaces.
• The drawing is one whole repeat. Its columns 1 to 31 look the same after a half turn about column 16, the middle of the oval, square for square, and column 32 is the middle of the crossed knot. So the 32 rows repeat end to end, as the ovals in the photo do.
• 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, 24 meshes to a row. In the photo the ridges between rows run across the band, and "24 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.
• Nothing is left off. The two solid lines at each edge are part of the printed 24 meshes.
• Row 1 is the left-hand column of the block pattern and row 32 the right-hand column. The book does not say which end to begin at.
• This page is one oval, 32 rows. The book does not say how long to make the band; repeat rows 1 to 32 for more ovals. Row 32 is the middle of the crossed knot, so a band of whole repeats begins just after the middle of a knot and ends on it.
• The two scrolls inside the oval turn opposite ways, so the oval is not the same on both sides of its middle. It is kept as drawn.
• 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 two solid blocks, 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 24 + 3 = 75, 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: 73 stitches across, a post at each side of every mesh.

Nothing to correct in the original. The block pattern is clear, and its printed 24 meshes agrees with the drawing when each solid edge band is counted as two meshes, as the photo shows it.