Not meat or fish, but crochet! I love filet crochet and remember many years ago my first attempt at working filet designs shown in vintage magazines. With a small legend and understanding of basic stitches; chains and double crochet, I began work and what unfolded was not just an intricate piece in crochet, but a story.
Filet is relatively easy once you understand the concept. Much like mosaics, you simply create a picture by filling in the squares, or as in this case, the mesh/grids. The mesh in itself is nothing more than dc and chs. Once the foundation chain is laid, you work an open mesh with double crochet and ch 2 sps. The double crochet is worked into every 3rd foundation ch (or beg ch).
On the 2nd row, you work a dc into each dc with a ch 2 between. Like I say, this is basic for most filet patterns. There are variables just like anything else.
To create the picture, you fill in the squares or open mesh with (2 dc) worked over the ch 2 sps.
But as simple as it sounds there are some ground rules.
First, not all squares or mesh are composed of 4 stitches as it might seem at first, but 3 sts. At the end of the row, you work an additional stitch to complete the grid. It would look something like this:
4 dc = 1 solid mesh: (4 dc)
1 dc, ch 2, 1 dc = 1 open mesh: (4 sts)
7 dc = 2 solid mesh: (7 dc)
1 dc, ch 2, 1 dc, ch 2, 1 dc = 2 open mesh: (7 sts)
In other words, the last stitch at the end of the mesh also serves as the first st of the next mesh. As a wall in your home is shared by two rooms – the one on one side of the wall and the other on the other side of the wall – the mesh on each side of the double crochet, share the double crochet between them.
Second, when working in rows you can not always read your chart from left to right. In other words, when working on the right side of your work, you’d be reading left to right, but when working back, you now must read the chart from right to left or you’d end with an abstract – which you might prefer!
A good way to indicate which way to read the chart is to draw arrows. When reading the chart from left to right, draw an arrow on the left side of the chart pointing to the right and then on the next row up, draw another arrow on the right side of the chart pointing to the left. At a glance, you’ll always know which way to read the chart and keep your work on course.
In the next few weeks I’ll add more information in regard to filet from variables, advance filet stitches, how to work beyond the basic square or rectangle shape and more!
