How to Read a Filet Crochet Chart

1Every square is one mesh

A filet chart is a picture of your lace, seen from the right side. Each square stands for one mesh, the little box of thread that filet crochet is made of. An empty square becomes a hole, an open mesh. A filled square becomes a solid block, a filled mesh. The design is drawn in filled meshes on a background of open ones, so a heart on the chart is a heart in your lace.

Some charts mark the filled squares with a cross or a dot instead of a colour. The key next to the chart always tells you which is which.

2What a square means in stitches

Filet crochet needs only two stitches: the chain (ch) and the double crochet (dc). We use US terms; in UK terms the dc is called a treble (tr).

Every mesh stands between two dc, like a little window between two posts:

• Open mesh: ch 1, skip 1 stitch, dc in the next dc.
• Filled mesh: dc in the middle stitch of the mesh below (the chain space or the dc), then dc in the next dc.

Neighbouring meshes share the post between them. So a row of N meshes has 2N + 1 stitches: one post to start with, then two stitches for each mesh. It makes a handy check at the end of a row.

Ch 1 or ch 2? Many patterns, especially older ones, make a bigger mesh, with ch 2 in an open mesh and 2 dc in a filled one, so each square takes three stitches. The chart is read in exactly the same way; only the stitches inside each square change. The key in every pattern says which mesh it uses, and the drawings in this guide show the ch-1 mesh from our patterns.

3Where to start: row 1 is at the bottom

Filet crochet grows upwards, and so does the chart. Row 1 is the lowest row, and you work up from there. Row 1 is worked into a foundation chain (counting it comes further down); every row after that is worked into the tops of the row before.

4Which way to read each row

At the end of every row you turn your work, so the direction changes every row. If you crochet right-handed:

• odd rows (1, 3, 5…) are read from right to left,
• even rows (2, 4, 6…) are read from left to right.

You don’t have to remember it: on most charts the row number sits on the side where that row starts. In ours the 1 is on the right, the 2 on the left, and so on up the chart.

The chart always shows the right side of the lace. On even rows the back of your work faces you. You still crochet from right to left as always, but seen from the front that is left to right, and that is how you follow the chart.

5How many chains to start with

Count the squares in row 1 and call the number N. For the ch-1 mesh, row 1 is worked into a chain of 2N + 3: two chains for each mesh, plus three that stand up as the first dc.

1. Chain 2N + 3.
2. Skip the first 3 ch from the hook: they count as the first dc.
3. Work along the chain, following row 1 from right to left: for a filled mesh, dc in each of the next 2 ch; for an open mesh, ch 1, skip 1 ch, dc in the next ch.

Count the chain twice, or slip a stitch marker into every tenth chain. For a ch-2 mesh the numbers are different, so follow the chain count in your pattern.

6Reading a row without losing your place

Don’t read a row one square at a time. Count runs of the same square instead: “2 open, 6 filled, 2 open” is much easier to hold in your head than ten separate squares. Say the row out loud, or jot it on a sticky note.

Lay a ruler or a strip of paper across the chart just above the row you are working. The rows you have done stay visible below it, and they look just like your lace.

Most of our patterns also spell out every row in words, and many come with a code for the guided row counter on this site, which shows you one row at a time.

7When the chart steps in and out

Shaped charts, like pointed hangings or masks, get wider or narrower at the edges. Where a row starts further in, slip stitch across the meshes that drop out (2 sl st for each mesh), then ch 3 and carry on. Where a row ends earlier, stop where the chart stops and turn. Where a row starts further out, chain the extra stitches first and work the new meshes into them. The pattern gives you the exact counts, and our guide to adding and removing meshes at the edges draws each move out.

8Crocheting left-handed?

Read every row the other way round: row 1 and all the odd rows from left to right, the even rows from right to left. Your first stitch then sits on the left of the work, just where the chart’s row 1 starts, so the picture comes out the same way round, not mirrored.