An advent calendar in filet crochet
Ghostly Advent
Twenty-four small lace ornaments, one for each day of December, each with a Victorian story that carries a little shiver. Every day a window opens here with that day’s ornament and its story, and for that one day its chart is free.
All 24 at once
The Ghostly Advent pattern pack has every chart, every row in words, all the stories and a guide to shaping and starching: 52 pages to print and keep, so you can start before December or take your time after it.
Before you start
Thread, meshes and shaping
You need
Cotton crochet thread size 10 (about 280 m per 50 g), white or ecru; each window gives its own amount. A 1.5 mm hook, a tapestry needle, rustless pins, a board you can pin into, and starch.
Gauge
25 meshes and 20 rows = 10 cm, after washing and blocking. The picot edging adds about 0.5 cm all round. Filet rows usually come out a little taller than the meshes are wide: when you starch, pin each ornament out to the shape of its chart.
Meshes
US terms: ch = chain, dc = double crochet, sl st = slip stitch, sc = single crochet. Open mesh: ch 1, skip 1 stitch, dc in the next dc. Filled mesh: dc in the middle stitch of the mesh below, dc in the next dc. A row of N meshes has 2N + 1 stitches.
Row 1 and every following row
Row 1 is worked into a chain of 2N + 3 ch; the first 3 ch from the hook count as the first dc. Along the chain: filled mesh = dc in each of the next 2 ch; open mesh = ch 1, skip 1 ch, dc in the next ch. After that: turn, ch 3 (counts as the first dc) and work the meshes as the chart shows.
Reading the charts
Row 1 is at the bottom: read up. Odd rows go from right to left, even rows from left to right; each row number sits on the side where that row starts. Meshes are numbered from the left along the top and the bottom, and the rows in words use the same numbers. How to read a filet crochet chart.
Fewer meshes
At the start of a row: turn without the ch 3, sl st across the meshes that drop out (2 sl st per mesh), ch 3 and carry on. At the end: stop where the chart stops and turn.
More meshes
At the start of a row: turn and ch 2k + 2 for k new meshes; the first 3 ch are the new edge dc. Work the new meshes into the chain, the last dc into the dc the chain comes from. At the end of a row: extended dc, 2 for each new mesh, all filled: yo, insert the hook at the base of the last stitch (after the first one, into the little base chain of the previous extended dc), pull up a loop, yo and pull through 1 loop, then [yo, pull through 2 loops] twice. Adding and removing meshes at the edges.
Rows in parts
Some tops divide into parts: ears, lobes, petals, leaves, flames. Work the first part to its last row and fasten off, then join the thread where the text says and work the next. The row numbers stay those of the chart.
Picot edging and the loop
Sc all round: 2 sc along each mesh on the top and bottom edges, 2 sc round each edge post on the sides and the steps; 1 sc more into an outer corner, 2 sc together at an inner one; after every 3rd sc a picot (ch 3, sl st in the 3rd ch from the hook). Then join the thread in the sc above the mesh marked “loop”, ch 25, sl st in the same sc. Picot edging, step by step.
Starch
Wash, roll in a towel, pin out flat to the shape of the chart, every picot opened out, starch and leave to dry completely. How to starch and shape crochet lace.