Help with a vintage pattern

[Yarn Witch]

I recently purchased a booklet that has doily patterns from 1906. Most of them have damask centers. One pattern doesn't but it does not say how to crochet the center part. All it says is to imitate and take the place of damask middle and is made of plain double crochet with increases to end with the center measuring three inches across.I also have to keep in mind this is a booklet from England, so the stitch names are different. I know how to make an increase stitch, but I'm not sure how to start this. Any help would be appreciated.

[Granny Square]

Here are generic instructions on how to make a plain solid flat circle, with formulas for various stitches (US terms).  Link is to the tutorial page because there's all sorts of other good stuff there, look at the left column, 'how to crochet in the round'.  Basically, if you have some crochet experience and have worked in the round before, all you really need to know is sc=6, hdc=8 or 9, and DC=12:  these are the number of stitches for the first round, and the number of increases to be made after that. 

http://www.crochetcabana.com/html/tutorials.html

 

If you can't get exactly 3" with DC, you could make the last round in SC to fine tune it.

 

An aside, I've seen a lot of those sorts of patterns (antiquepatternlibrary.com) has a bunch for free).  A lot of them say something like 'put 100 stitches around a 3" linen circle' for example, to start.  I've often wondered why you couldn't just start with 100 stitches joined a ring, make the doily with a hole in the middle, block the doily, then cut a circle to fit the hole plus a narrow bit to machine or hand-edge for reinforcement, then sew invisibly onto the doily (with the reinforced fabric part on the back side of the crochet).  It seems to me that this would help to keep the doily flat in case 'my' stitch tension didn't match that of the designer (example, I may have needed a 2.75" or 3.25" circle but would have had to waste some work and rip out to find that out).

 

If I decided to make a solid or improvised crocheted center, and the pattern didn't say 'start with xx stitches around the fabric circle', I'd read the first round's directions and try to figure out how many stitches you'd need as a 'base', so I could work a circle ending with that number of stitches.  This may or may not work, depending on the first row's directions (for example, if it started with chain loops).

 

Also, make sure that you are using the right size thread.  I think it's pretty rare for a 100 year old pattern to use such 'coarse' (as they would say back then) thread as #10 weight, which is what 99% of modern patterns call out.  If you are using a different thread, the starting circle size will be different.

 

BTW...until somewhere after WW1, US terms were the same as UK; by 1930 or so the terms are 'modern' US.  (What were they thinking??  sigh)

[Yarn Witch]

Thank you!!! The people who I bought the booklet from sent a page along the sort of translates the old terms into modern.