Learn filet crochet
Everything you need to go from your first block to designing your own charts. Start at the top of the path, or jump to the guide you need.
Start here
What Is Filet Crochet? A Beginner's Guide
Filet crochet builds pictures from filled blocks and open squares on a grid. Here is what it is and why it is so beginner-friendly.
Learning paths
Three ordered routes through the guides, each ending in a hand-picked collection to practise on. Follow one start to finish, or mix and match.
Start here
Beginner Path
Go from never having held a filet chart to finishing your first motif. Read these in order, then stitch an easy pattern to lock it in.
Build confidence
Intermediate Path
Once you can follow a chart, move on to shaping and reading busier motifs. These guides take you from a clean beginner make to more detailed work.
Design your own
Advanced Path
Shape contoured edges and turn your own ideas, names, and images into charts. This path ends with designing patterns from scratch in the editor.
Basics
What Is Filet Crochet? A Beginner's Guide
Filet crochet builds pictures from filled blocks and open squares on a grid. Here is what it is and why it is so beginner-friendly.
4 min readHow to Read a Filet Crochet Chart
A filet chart is a grid of filled and empty squares. Learn which way to read it and how each square maps to your stitches.
4 min readChoosing Yarn and Hook for Filet Crochet
Thread or yarn, steel or aluminium hook, and why a smooth cotton in one clear colour shows your design best.
4 min readTechniques
Increases and Decreases in Filet Crochet
How to add or remove blocks and spaces at the edges of a row to shape a filet design.
5 min readDesign Your Own Filet Crochet Charts
Turn an idea, a name, or an image into a filet chart you can print and stitch, using the in-browser editor.
4 min readBlocking Filet Crochet: Methods, Tools, and Aftercare
A crisp, square grid is finished on the blocking board, not on the hook. Learn wet blocking, spray blocking, and starching for filet crochet, plus how to care for a piece afterward.
5 min readJoining and Finishing Filet Crochet Projects
Turn a single chart into a finished piece: add a border round, seam multiple panels together, and combine motifs from the library into one larger design.
5 min readFilet Crochet in the Round: Charting Circular Motifs
Doilies and circular motifs are still just blocks and spaces — here is how charting filet in the round differs from working flat rows.
5 min readProjects
Reference
Understanding Gauge in Filet Crochet
Gauge is the bridge between a chart and a finished size. Learn what mesh gauge is, how to measure it, and how it sets the dimensions of any filet pattern.
5 min readFilet Crochet Pattern Sizes: From Chart Squares to Finished Inches
Every filet chart carries its size in its grid. Learn to read finished dimensions from the square count and pick the right size for blankets, runners, and gifts.
5 min readCommon Filet Crochet Mistakes and How to Fix Them
Wavy edges, lost counts, and lopsided mesh are almost always one of a handful of fixable causes. Here is how to spot and correct the usual filet crochet problems.
6 min readFilet Crochet Terms: A Plain-English Glossary
Blocks, spaces, mesh, lacets, foundation chains — the vocabulary of filet crochet in clear definitions, so any pattern or chart reads without guesswork.
5 min readLeft-Handed Filet Crochet: Reading and Mirroring Charts
A filet chart is not handed — here is how to read one comfortably left-handed, and how to mirror a design when you need to.
4 min readFilet Crochet vs. Cross-Stitch vs. Graphgan: What's the Difference?
All three build a picture from a grid of squares, but the tools, the technique, and the finished fabric are completely different. Here is how to tell filet crochet apart from cross-stitch and graphgan crochet.
5 min readPut it into practice
The fastest way to learn is to stitch. Browse beginner-friendly motifs or jump straight into the editor to start a chart of your own.