Trouble w/ Vintage Pattern

[SuzzieGrim]

I have been attempting to work up a vintage pattern that seems pretty straight forward, but have not been successful thus far. Being a vintage leaflet, the instructions do not provide every last detail like modern patterns tend to do now. For example, the number of stitches you should have at the end of each row is not listed in the pattern. The pattern instructs to work in the round for this portion, but my rounds never meet up evenly. My stitch count always ends up off somehow, and I'm not sure what I am doing wrong.

RND 1: Ch 2, work 10 sc in the 2nd ch from the hook. Sl st to the first sc, ch 1.

(I chose to substitute a magic circle w/ 10 sc for this step)

RND 2: *2 loop sts in the first sc*. Repeat between *'s around. Mark the end of the round and work in continuous rounds.

(I end this round with 20 stitches)

RND 3: *1 sc in next 2 sts. 2 sc in next st*, repeat between *'s around.

(I end this round on "1 sc in next 2 sts" with 26 stitches)

RND 4: Work 1 loop st in each st around.

(I end this round with 26 stitches)

RND 5: *1 sc in next 4 sts, 2 sc in next st, repeat from * around.

(I end this round on "2 sc in next st" with 1 remaining stitch unworked, a total of 30 worked + 1 left)

That is as far as I have attempted to work this portion of the pattern because something is clearly off with my work. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Granny Square]

Hi Suzzie, welcome to the ville!

My favorite patterns to work are vintage ones (doilies, mostly).  I have worked a couple from the 1800s (those are not for sissies, they are pretty terse and the terms are different, I end up looking at the illustration a lot), many from the WW1 era (clear but terse, the main difference is US patterns from that era are in modern UK terms), and A LOT from WWII on, which are pretty 'modernly' worded, except as you noted typically without the stitch counts at the end of lines.  Am going to 'type and think out loud', bear with me...

Round 1 & 2, check 

Round 3 start with 20 sts, make 4 stitches over 3 stitches.  20 divided by 3 is 6 repeats, 6x4=24, with 2 left over and the next instruction of the pattern is 1 stitch in each stitch, so 26, check.

Round 4 does not change stitch count.

Round 5 makes 6 stitches over every 5 stitches, you start with 26.  So over the first 25 you make 6x5=30 stitches, with 1 from the prior round left over.

I get the same result as you do, so I don't think it is 'you'.  If I encountered this, I'd undoubtedly try to fudge my way to the right count in a way that would be the least obvious.  Example, I'd look at the next line or lines, and see what would happen if I started with 1 extra, would it be less conspicuous to end round 5 with 2sctog to use up the extra stitch, or to omit an increase in round 6.  

 

 

 

[SuzzieGrim]

51 minutes ago, Granny Square said:

Hi Suzzie, welcome to the ville!

I get the same result as you do, so I don't think it is 'you'.  If I encountered this, I'd undoubtedly try to fudge my way to the right count in a way that would be the least obvious.  Example, I'd look at the next line or lines, and see what would happen if I started with 1 extra, would it be less conspicuous to end round 5 with 2sctog to use up the extra stitch, or to omit an increase in round 6.  

 

 

 

Thank you for the welcome and the reply, Granny Square! 

While it is reassuring that you arrive at the same results, I'm not sure how to move forward in this case. The way the pattern continues makes this error (if indeed it is the pattern and not me) an issue all the way through. The next lines repeat the error through the entire piece, and the count continues to be off.

RND'S 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, & 16: Work 1 loop st in each st around.

RND'S 7, 9, 11, 13, & 15: Repeat row 5.

 

[Granny Square]

I often have to tweak a doily that is a problem because my stitch gauge height doesn't agree with the designers', so I'm not afraid to 'boldly go' and add or subtract stitches to get it to lie flat, and at the same time look OK.  

So if you correct the error by omitting an increase in row 5, and in the repeats of row 5 rows listed in the last line of your last post...will that have a horrible looking outcome?  I'm thinking, unless there's more than 1 sort of loop stitch, probably not, as it would be fairly camouflaging  (this is what I'm imagining)

Edited November 2, 2022 by Granny Square