How to read a filet crochet chart

Squares that are open or filled

Filet crochet is a grid of small squares made from double crochet and chains. Each square is either open, a hole in the mesh, or filled solid with stitches. The picture comes from the filled squares against the open background, or the other way around, so most filet is worked in a single color and the design shows as texture and light.

The look goes back to filet lace, where patterns were darned into knotted net with a needle. An old filet crochet booklet makes the point that crochet does the same designs in one step, working the solid and open squares as you go.

The chart is about as simple as crochet charts get: a grid where each square is blank or filled. There are no colors to match and few symbols. Most mistakes come from losing your place.

How each square is made

In US terms, in the most common version:

• An open square, also called a space or mesh: dc, ch 2, skip the next 2 stitches, dc.
• A filled square, also called a block: dc in the next dc, dc in each of the next 2 stitches (or 2 dc in the chain-2 space), dc in the next dc.

The double crochet at the end of one square is also the first double crochet of the next. Neighboring squares share their edges, like fence posts. So each square adds 3 stitches, plus 1 to close off the last square, and a row of n squares is 3n + 1 stitches wide. Three blocks side by side are 10 double crochets. A row 20 squares wide is 61 stitches. A few patterns use a smaller mesh, such as dc, ch 1, dc, so check the pattern's stitch notes.

Starting a row

The turning chain stands in for the first double crochet. If the row starts with a block, chain 3 (it counts as a dc) and work a dc in each of the next 3 stitches. If it starts with a space, chain 5, which counts as the dc plus the chain 2, skip 2 stitches and dc in the next dc.

The foundation chain

Most patterns tell you how many chains to make. If you're working from a chart alone, the arithmetic is the same fence-post count. For a first row that starts with a block, chain 3 times the number of squares, plus 3, then dc in the 4th chain from the hook and in every chain after it. The 3 skipped chains count as the first dc. Ten squares means chain 33 and ends with 31 stitches. For a first row that starts with a space, chain 3 times the number of squares, plus 5, and work the first dc in the 8th chain from the hook.

US and UK terms

UK patterns call each stitch by the US name of the next taller stitch (chain and slip stitch are the same in both). A US double crochet is a UK treble, so a UK filet pattern builds its mesh from trebles. When a UK pattern says "dc", it means what a US pattern calls a single crochet.

The chart is the same in both; only the stitch names differ. Check the abbreviations page of any pattern before you start, because "dc" means a different stitch depending on where it was written.

Which way to read the chart

Read a filet chart from the bottom up. Row 1 is the bottom row.

Worked flat, odd rows run from right to left and even rows from left to right. That follows your work: you crochet row 1 across, turn, and crochet row 2 back the other way. If you crochet left-handed, start row 1 at the left and reverse the rest.

Count squares, not stitches. On a busy row it helps to write the runs out before you start: "Row 14: 3 spaces, 2 blocks, 6 spaces, 2 blocks, 3 spaces". A sticky note or ruler laid just above the row you're on keeps your eye from sliding up to the next one, and checking each finished row against the chart catches a missed block before you've built three rows on top of it.

Where rows usually go wrong

• Counting 4 stitches per square. Each square only adds 3, because it shares a double crochet with its neighbor. Count 4 and the row grows by a stitch every square.
• Working into the stitch at the base of the turning chain. The chain already stands in for that double crochet, so your next stitch goes into the second stitch of the row.
• Chain 2s that vary in size. Tight ones pinch the open squares and loose ones let them sag, so the mesh looks uneven even when the count is right.

Lacets and bars

Some filet charts add two fancier units, each two squares wide.

A lacet makes a little V shape in the mesh. In US terms: dc, ch 3, skip 2, sc in the next stitch, ch 3, skip 2, dc. It covers the same 7 stitches as two ordinary squares.

A bar, sometimes called a long mesh, is one long open space across two squares: dc, ch 5, skip 5 (or skip over the lacet below), dc.

They often come as a pair, with a bar worked across the top of a lacet on the next row. When you work a lacet on top of a bar, the single crochet in the middle can go into the center chain of the bar or around the whole chain-5 loop, whichever you like better.

Plenty of filet charts never use them. When one does, check its key to see how they're drawn.

Thread, hook and size

Classic filet is worked in crochet thread, which gives the fine, lacy look most people picture. The Craft Yarn Council puts 10-count crochet thread in its lace category, with a suggested steel hook of 1.4 to 1.6 mm (US steel sizes 6, 7 and 8). Steel hooks run backward from regular hooks: the higher the number, the smaller the hook.

Filet works in regular yarn too, at a much bigger scale, and plenty of filet blanket patterns use worsted weight yarn.

Charts are drawn on square grids, but your mesh may not come out square. It depends on your tension and on how tall your double crochets are. One longtime craft blogger who made a filet dragon curtain found her squares came out wider than they were tall. Crochet a swatch 10 squares by 10 and measure it. If it comes out 3 inches wide and 2.5 inches tall, a 60 by 60 square chart will be about 18 inches wide and 15 tall. The gauge calculator handles the arithmetic for bigger charts.

Charting your own

Because every square is either open or filled, filet suits simple silhouettes, lettering and bold shapes. Photos full of midtones don't survive being cut down to open and filled, so high-contrast images and drawings work best.

Any square grid works. The cross stitch graph paper tool prints one for free, with no account. In Craft Studio's crochet colorwork editor (free, with an account), filet is its own project type with square cells, so it matches the square grids filet charts are drawn on.

C2C graphs are drawn on square grids too, so how to read a C2C graph is a good next read if you want to work pictures in color. And if double crochet and chain are still new to you, start with crochet for beginners.