Filet Crochet Technique
Easy and Quick Stitch Pattern Makes Variety of Items
Filet crochet can create both simple and complicated stitch patterns appropriate for many projects. Explore filet crochet and make something lacy and striking.
A Brief History of Filet Crochet
Crochet began as an imitation of various kinds of bobbin and needle laces, using fine cotton and an embroidery hook. Look at vintage patterns, and it becomes obvious that many words used to describe different kinds of crochet are the same as those used for types of lace.
“Filet crochet” is a term from the mid-19th century, when crochet began to copy lace patterns. Filet crochet was once the most prolific form of crochet, as it copied filet lace easily and did not require complicated patterns.
Any crochet that is worked in relatively fine yarn or thread, and uses a stitch that produces an open fabric is often referred to as lace crochet. Filet crochet is a type of lace crochet.
Filet crochet is popular because it can easily be charted on graph paper using a cross for a block and leaving the square blank for a space. This makes it relatively simple to create geometric designs and text. Or, all the blocks can be left “open” to make an airy design.
Basic Filet Crochet
Only two stitches are used in the simple square network of filet crochet – the chain and the double crochet stitch. Combinations of these make either blocks or spaces, and form a grid, which is the very foundation of filet crochet.
Figure 1 shows a “cape-let” made up of “unfilled” filet blocks; it demonstrates what a basic grid should look like. Scroll down and click on the picture for a close-up.The mesh-like grid is a network of squares, made by working a series of spaces (dc, ch2, sk2, repeat until finished.) Each double should sit on top of the one in the row below.
Now, imagine Figure 1 with some of those holes filled in; each hole can hold two double crochet stitches. Where the hole is filled in by two double crochet stitches, there is a filet block. The blocks combine to make a word or picture. Where there is just an open hole, there is a filet space. That’s all there is to it.
Materials in Filet Crochet
Traditionally, filet crochet is made using fine thread and a steel hook. However, modern designs use all types.
Charts are often used to plan the design of an item in filet. Graph paper works just fine; each box represents a block or a space.
Once an outline is created on graph paper, it can be translated into yarn. Figure 2 is a reproduction of one such chart. Figure 3 is what the project actually turns out to be.
An Open Filet Crochet Pattern-less Project
Figure 1 is a capelet that is simply a rectangle made up of filet spaces. A baby-blue sport weight yarn was used, and none of the spaces were filled in. It was fastened at two corners with an heirloom pin, and that pin defines the opening of the cape. Essentially, this capelet is an unfilled filet grid, and it looks perfectly elegant as it is.
