Pattern Description from Heirloom Knitting: “In the mid-nineteenth century, it was fashionable for ladies to have dainty lawn squares edged with elaborate lace, as handkerchiefs. Sarah McComb Rawson knitted such edgings and three of her exquisitely worked handkerchiefs are in the collection at the American Museum in Bath, Britain. The edging I have worked above is very similar to one Sarah chose, being a very wide Bead Lace Insertion coupled to a simple Vandyke and Plain Triangle Edging. The edging is made using only one 20 gm reel of DMC Crochet Cotton 70 and the finest antique needles I could find. Although this gauge of needle is not readily commercially available now to my knowledge, it is still possible to find them second-hand, or from specialists. The Victorian Mauchlinware knitting needle-case shown in the book, contained two rusty sets of fine British size 19 double-pointed needles, about seven inches long and with a diameter of 1 mm approximately (the needles would have been for ladies use in making edgings, purses and other fine laces). after using the finest grade emery paper - also know as ‘wet and dry paper’ - to rub the rust off along the shafts, I made end caps out of map pins (with the pins pulled out), and these needles were again usable. The fine six inch (15cm) square handkerchief was one I found second hand.

Pages 259-260.