Tobacco Pouch with Knitted Cover

 This pattern comes from Weldon’s Practical Knitter, Number 125, Thirty-First Series (1896). It is also published in Weldon’s Practical Needlework, Volume 11, Interweave Press, 2004.

The cover is described as “an appropriate present for a gentleman who smokes and does not find the addition of such a cover lessens the usefulness of his pouch.” I find the end of this sentence very interesting as the needlework books from the latter part of the 19^th century are chock full of items to make that are not necessarily needed but never question their existence. In fact, several functions are suggested for some items. All of that, of course, was a marketing ploy for the pattern and materials.

The original pattern calls for “two shades of the same coloured knitting silk…dark and light blue, and a very little red knitting silk,” and “four steel needles No. 14” (modern equivalent 2mm/US 1.50) “and a coarse steel crochet hook” (no size stated.)

The pattern is knit flat in two separate matching sized pieces which are then sewn together to contain a tobacco pouch in contrasting shades with a central opening. An edging is crocheted in red all around the pouch.

I used DMC Mouliné Spécial 25 embroidery floss on the suggested size of needles - eight skeins, each, of Number 167 (light blue) and 798 (dark blue) and one skein of 817 (red.) This was one of my least favourite projects as, in spite of the very easy, repetitive pattern, I kept making mistakes, stopped and started over four times (note the unraveled, crinkled floss), and can still see errors in the completed cover.

I do not have a leather pouch inside of the cover and so could not get it to stay open as it does in the illustration; hence the position in my photograph. The pouch measures 3” across (flat, folded, as pictured) and 5” high.

All quotations are from Weldon’s Practical Needlework, Volume Eleven, Interweave Press, 2004