Seven antique crochet doilies and medallions, from 1846 and 1870

Seven pieces from two old books

Four of the doilies come from Eléonore Riego de la Branchardière, 1846. She called them d'oyleys and, above her six round designs, wrote one line of review: "These D'Oyleys are very beautiful." The three medallions come from an 1870 English needlework book, where each began life as one patch of a much larger d'oyley.

Levels and finished sizes, after blocking:

• Diamond Doily: Intermediate, about 6.5 in (17 cm) across, 12 rounds
• Trellis Doily: Easy, leaning Intermediate, about 6 in (15 cm), 12 rounds
• Scallop Doily: Easy, leaning Intermediate, about 6 in (15 cm), 12 rounds
• Semé Doily: Intermediate, about 5.5 in (14 cm), 11 rounds
• Picot Rosette: Easy, about 2.5 in (6 cm), 7 rounds
• Six-Point Picot Star: Intermediate, about 2.5 in (6 cm), 4 rounds
• Quatrefoil Medallion: Easy, about 1.5 in (4 cm), 2 rounds

The Diamond Doily: eight wedges that split

Riego opens with one sentence: "Make a chain of 8 stitches, and join it." Round 1 puts a double crochet and a chain-3 space into each chain, which gives you eight spokes. Rounds 2 to 5 widen each one by two stitches, from 3 to 9 double crochet, so by round 5 you are holding eight fat wedges and 72 double crochet.

Then the doily changes its mind. Round 6 skips stitches at the edge of every wedge and the solid fabric breaks into 16 small chain-2 spaces. By round 12 those spaces have turned into open diamonds with a chain-3 point between each pair. The doily uses only double crochet and short chains, which is why the pattern is rated Intermediate rather than Easy: the stitches are plain, the counting is not.

Round 6 is the one to watch. If you are following in Row & Round, park the bar there before you put the hook down, because a skipped stitch at the split ripples through every diamond.

Two rounds that would not add up

Every round of every pattern was counted stitch by stitch against the round before, and the old text did not always survive. The Trellis Doily's 8th round says "2 treble in 1, miss 3, 2 chain". On the 126 stitches beneath it, skipping 3 each time leaves a remainder, because 126 does not divide by 4. The version here reads it as two double crochet in the next stitch, chain 2, then skip the chain-2 below, which keeps Riego's own note that the new chain sits over the old one.

The Semé Doily had the same trouble in round 8, with 90 stitches and another "miss 3". Counting the stitch you work into among the three gives 30 repeats, and rounds 9 to 11 then match the original exactly.

Two other 1846 designs, the Damier and Filet d'oyleys, failed in the same way at their 9th and 5th rounds and were left out rather than guessed at.

What "long" meant in 1870, and why the medallions are small

The 1870 pages name stitches differently. Their "double crochet" is today's single crochet, their "single crochet" is a slip stitch, and a plain "long" is never defined. It is read here as a double crochet. The book's glossary does list a Long Double and a Long Treble, so the loops on the Picot Rosette and the Six-Point Picot Star could come out a shade shorter or taller than the original maker's.

Each of these motifs was meant to be sewn to a dozen others on a paper template, with an edging left "to the judgment of the worker". Here they stand alone. The Quatrefoil Medallion is two rounds: four chain-11 loops covered in single crochet, then three picots on each. Join a handful into a strip or scatter them over linen.

A picot on the Rosette is a chain 3 closed with a slip stitch into the top of the last single crochet. The Star and the Quatrefoil use a longer ring picot, chain 5 or 7 and a slip stitch into the fifth or seventh chain from the hook.

Thread, hook and the board you will pin to

The doilies call for size 10 crochet cotton and a 1.75 mm steel hook (US steel size 4). The medallions use size 20 cotton and a 1.3 mm hook (US steel size 10). Budget about 35 to 55 yd (32 to 50 m) for a doily, about 5 to 10 yd (5 to 9 m) for a medallion, and about 210 yd (192 m) for all seven. White or ecru is traditional, though any colour works.

Gauge matters little here. Choose the hook that gives a firm, flat fabric, and know that finer thread makes a smaller piece and heavier thread a larger one. The sizes above are estimates worked out from stitch counts.

Plan to block. Riego's increases are uneven in places, notably the Diamond Doily's rounds 6 to 8, and a damp pin-out on a board does most of the work of flattening them. You need a tapestry needle and rust-proof pins; spray starch is optional.

Which one to hook first

Start with the Quatrefoil Medallion. It takes two rounds and a handful of yards, and it tells you quickly whether size 20 thread suits your hands. The Picot Rosette is the next step: a ring of 11 chains, seven rounds, and no stitch beyond chain, slip stitch, single crochet and double crochet.

Among the doilies, the Trellis and the Scallop are the gentler pair. Leave the Diamond and the Semé until you are comfortable counting chain spaces without a marker in each one.