How to Read Filet Crochet Charts

The two squares

Filet crochet uses two stitches and two kinds of square, and that is the entire vocabulary:

Neighbouring meshes share their edge stitches, which is why a row of 10 meshes is not 40 stitches wide. You never need to count that yourself — the written rows in our patterns already give the runs in working order.

Which direction do the rows run?

Charts are worked from the bottom up. Row 1 is the bottom row of the grid, and you read it right to left, because that is the direction your hook travels on a right-side row. Then you turn your work, so row 2 reads left to right, row 3 right to left again, and so on. Odd rows are right-side (RS) rows; even rows are wrong-side rows.

This matters for asymmetric designs: if you read every row in the same direction, a bird facing left comes out facing right on half your rows — which is to say, ruined. Written instructions that come with our patterns (and the ones the chart maker generates) already put every row in working order, so if you follow the words rather than the grid, the direction is handled for you.

The foundation chain, counted

The standard modern convention, which our written patterns follow:

1. Base chain = 3 × meshes + 1. A chart 20 meshes wide starts from a base of ch 61.
2. Add turning chains for the first mesh. If the first mesh of row 1 is filled, add ch 3 and make your first dc in the 4th ch from hook. If it is open, add ch 5 and dc in the 8th ch from hook.
3. Every following row starts ch 3 when its first mesh is filled, ch 5 when it is open.

Older books sometimes count differently, so if you mix sources, trust one convention per project. Whichever you use, check your mesh count at the end of row 1 — catching a miscount there costs a minute; catching it at row 40 costs an evening.

A worked example, from 1914

Here are the opening rows of the Cornucopia & Trellis panel from our library, restored from The Priscilla Filet Crochet Book, No. 2 (1914). The chart is 97 meshes wide and 126 rows tall, and its written pattern begins:

Read row 4 against the chart and you can see exactly what the words are doing: a long solid border row (row 3), then a row where five single open meshes punctuate the solid band — the beginnings of the trellis border. Notice row 1 has only 23 meshes while the chart is 97 wide: this is a shaped chart, whose edges step outward as the panel grows. On shaped charts the written rows give the mesh runs, and you follow the chart itself for where edges step in and out.

US and UK terms

Everything on this site uses US terms. UK patterns call the same stitches by different names — one level up:

So a UK source saying "3 tr" for a filled mesh means exactly what we write as "3 dc". If a vintage pattern's stitches seem one size off, this is almost always why.

Three habits that save projects

1. Mark your place on the chart — a ruler under the current row, or our stitch-along mode, which ticks rows off and saves progress on your device.
2. Count meshes at every row end. The written row tells you the total; if your last mesh lands wrong, the mistake is in that row, not three rows back.
3. Swatch before you size. Mesh proportions vary with thread, hook and tension — many crocheters find their meshes come out slightly wider than tall. A 20-mesh swatch tells you your real gauge and whether you want a taller stitch.

Keep going

About these patterns. Crochetpatternmaker.com is an independent site. The vintage charts in our library are restored from The Priscilla Filet Crochet Book, No. 2 (Priscilla Publishing Company, Boston, 1914), a work in the public domain; we re-charted each design from the original plates and cross-checked it against the printed mesh counts. We are not affiliated with any past or present publisher. The chart maker runs entirely in your browser — images you upload never leave your device. Finished sizes are estimates: filet gauge depends on your thread, hook and tension, so work a small swatch first.