Comb Bag

This pattern comes from Weldon’s Practical Knitter, Number 17, Fifth Series (1887). It is also published in Weldon’s Practical Needlework, Volume 2, Interweave Press, 2000.

There is no actual pattern for the comb bag, only a suggestion and stitch count to make this case at the end of the Nightdress Case pattern in the same edition.

The original pattern for the Nightdress Case calls for “Strutt’s knitting cotton, No. 6” and “a pair of steel needles No. 12” (modern equivalent 2.50mmmm/US 2. No gauge or tension or finished size is stated. This bag would certainly hold a small hairbrush and comb, and a few other accessories for the hair but not one of those lovely large brush and comb sets from the 19^th century. Both cases are knit into a zigzag lace strip fabric which is trimmed with a lace edge whose pattern is included in the one for the Nightdress Case. The cases should be lined with “pink sateen.”

I had originally started the Nightdress Case in white thread some years ago but changed to this lovely powder blue after discovering it last winter. Both bags are being knit on on 2.5mm/US 2 size needles, using Aunt Lydia’s Classic Crochet thread (Size 10) in Delft. I have the Nightdress Case on the needles, too, with the same thread, but I thought this smaller bag was a good warm up exercise for the larger project. A good thing, too, as perhaps I can make myself pay more attention to the larger case since there are glaring errors in the lower front part of the lace trim of this bag. I can only say that knitting lace in a poor light is a bad idea and advise that all handwork should be checked every now and then during its production.

The bag measures 8” x 5 ¼”, or 7 ¼” by 11” including the lace border. It is lined with pink imitation silk and trimmed “with strings of pink ribbon to draw.”*

*Weldon’s Practical Knitter, Number 17, Fifth Series (1887)