OK.  So normally I'd do a bunch of internet research to get my facts straight ... but this isn't normally, so I'm just going to say some stuff and hopefully it's true.  In Victorian Times, crochet was a big deal and everyone thought it was awesome (this is the part I might be making up).  

So I did a Google Book search the other day for books published between 1800 and 1910 that had the word crochet in them and found this crochet book published in 1847 (this is true, but God knows if it's actually Victorian ... OK, I caved and checked wikipedia, the Victorian Era started in 1837 and when until 1901 ... and there went an hour following links and learning stuff ... not *all* bad, I guess ... but now this post is a day later than I was hoping.  Anyway...)

I've been looking for something specific, and I think this crochet stitch pattern* fits the bill.  The problem is, the illustration isn't really a chart and the written directions make my head spin.  I didn't have the patience when I was looking at them to slow way down and see if I could Zen my way into understanding what they meant.  Instead, I went off-road.

The first couple of swatches below are me trying to follow the not-directions and the not-chart.  The next couple are me just plowing through hoping something worked.  Then I started half-heartedly charting as I went along.
Then, I got in the zone and BOOM, a chart and a repeatable pattern:  
Nice, isn't it?  Only one thing ... I wanted a pattern that got a little bigger as it went, like the illustration above.  Argh.  When I finished the last swatch, I was out of crochet time, so I'm going to have to come back to this (soon!?) because I think I can easily add some stuff in between the big holes to grow the row.  I'd also like to put the mesh row before the big hole back in.  I like the way that hole looks better than the hole right after the solid-ish row.

* AAAAAHHHHhhhhh!  So, if you're in google book search and you're looking at a book and you think, "Hey, I'd like to post this illustration as an image in my blog post." God help you if you don't see the "Clip" link, because that sucker will save you a *ton* of time.  A TON (unless, of course, you write a super-long footnote about it ... but *next time*, oh yes *next time*, it will save  you a ton of time.  (1) click "Clip" (2) Use your mouse cursor to draw a box of the thing you want to be your image (3) Notice the pop up box that has the url and embed code for the bit you wanted (4) copy and paste that text into your blog post. (5) Think to yourself, "Sure, Google is Evil, but whatevs.  Once in a blue moon they do something way cool."