Jackson's Practical Companion, Page 105

The next edging swatch I made in The Practical Companion to the Work Table, by Elizabeth Jackson was the Brussels Lace pattern, on page 105.

As with the prior two patterns (Pointed Lace, Open Lace), this pattern is again written in garter stitch lace, and I have charted (and swatched) both the original and a stockinette style version. These charts use two additional symbols. One is a double decrease. The other is a non-standard symbol indicating two yarns-overs; on the following row only one of the yarn-overs is used and the other is dropped. This results in an extra loose yarn over, and a larger hole.

This pattern has an 8 row repeat. The written instructions for row 9 say to bind off some number of stitches then continue with row 1. In the following charts, row 9 is fully diagrammed. Thus row 1 is only used at the beginning, and the pattern then repeats between rows 2 and 9. When ending, the last full row of the pattern should be row 8, with the 9th row being the bindoff. Here is a chart of the original version, with even rows knit.

The modified version with the even rows purled, for a distinct front and back.

Again I used a size 10 crochet thread and a US size 0 (2mm) needle to make a swatch. I started with three repeats of the original pattern (first 3 points on the right), then switched to the stockinette style pattern. After about two repeats of that, I concluded I really didn't like the look of K1, P1, K1, P1, into the four yarn overs in a row: the little bumps that occur annoy me. So I started playing with loop cast ons instead of yarn overs (holes are too small: second point from the left), and alternating loop cast ons with yarn overs. I was relatively happy with the final version I came up with (left most point). Later I will write up instructions of what I did.

A larger picture of the portions corresponding to the above charts.