This barely-there edging pattern is very predictable, knitting up quickly! It’s from 1870 Mrs. Beeton’s Guide to Embroidery, Crochet and Knitting, pp.174-177. The edging was meant to trim Beeton’s “Knitted Table Cover” which I renamed “Dahlia Doily” on Ravelry since the extant instructions end at a doily size without any further guidance. Mrs. Beeton’s book was published 5 years after her passing, which might explain some strange instructions in some of the book’s patterns.

Dahlia Doily Trim starts with 6 stitches. I added one stitch to help control the first yarn over in the even-numbered rows and corrected a missing yarn over in row 11. Every even row adds a stitch to the pattern until row 16 where the 7 extra stitches are bound-off to start the next repeat.
The trim is 1.75 inches at its widest at gauge.

Skills needed: cast on, slip, knit, purl, YO, k2tog and bind off in knit stitch.

Gauge is not important in this pattern. Any block-able yarn/thread will work. Make a swatch to check gauge and appearance.

17 yards of Aunt Lydia’s Classic 10 thread will make 10 inches of Dahlia Doily Trim at gauge.