The Art of Filet Crochet
Filet crochet should also be mentioned here as it is an ‘art’ in itself and most popular in Southern Europe, where women, young and old, sit on their doorstep and create the most beautiful table cloths, bedspreads and even curtains in the finest cotton!
Filet crochet is based on a simple network with a regular square grid usually made of treble and chain stitches. Pattern instructions are usually presented in the form of squared charts, representing a view of the finished fabric, in which the vertical lines represent treble stitches and the horizontal ones (top of the rows) chain stitches. Designs of all kinds are created by ‘filling in’ some of the squares (or ‘spaces’) with treble stitches instead of chains (Figs 152 and 153).
These charts are ‘read’ in the same general way as fairisle charts, that is working from the bottom upwards and to and fro, and a key is always given showing you what each square represents.
