Filet Crochet

The terry cloth dish cloth hanger is now finished. It used a couple different mesh patterns plus a buttonhole plus a picot edging. Here is a pic.

Meshes are part of a type of crocheting called filet crochet.

Two basic meshes in filet crocheting are the open or filet mesh and the block or solid mesh. The American Thread Company booklet shows how to do both of these basic meshes.

The picture at the top is of an open or filet mesh. To start off this mesh from a chain base, first chain 8 plus a multiple of 3 sts. Then, quoting from the booklet, "work the first dc in 8th ch from hook, * ch 2, skip 2, dc in next st, repeat from *. Succeeding rows, ch 5 to turn and dc in dc, * ch 2, dc in next dc, repeat from *."

The 7 unworked chain sts at the beginning of the first row represent 2 ch sts for the top and 2 for the bottom of the first mesh hole and 3 ch sts to replace a dc at the beginning of the row. The ch 5 at the beginning of subsequent rows is 3 ch sts in place of a dc plus 2 ch sts for the top of the mesh hole.

The picture at the bottom has block or solid meshes filling in some of the open mesh squares. To work the mesh pictured from a chain, first chain a multiple of 6 sts. Then, work a dc in 4th ch from hook, dc 3, * ch 2, skip 2, dc 4, repeat from *. (The ch 3 at the beginning of the row counts as a dc.)

Note that for the 4 dc blocks, the first and last dc's are made in the top of a dc and the middle 2 dc's are made in a chain space.

For subsequent rows, alternate:

Ch 3, skip 1st dc, dc 2, * dc 4, ch 2, skip 2, repeat from *, end with dc 7
(or, alternatively, for an open mesh at the beginning and end of the row, ch 5, skip 1st 3 dc's, * dc 4, ch 2, skip 2, repeat from *, end with dc 1.

Ch 3, skip 1st dc, dc 3, * ch 2, skip 2, dc 4, repeat from *.

It's easy to design your own filet crochet patterns and mesh patterns. Get some graph paper and shade in the squares that you want as chain spaces. Here's a link to a traditional filet design, a spider.

Here's a diamond mesh design that I made up years and years ago for a throw (in worsted weight yarn). The rows are:

Row 1: Ch 3, * dc 2, ch 1, skip 1, dc 2, repeat from *.
Row 2: Ch 3, * dc 1, ch 1, skip 1, dc 1, ch 1, skip 1, dc 2, repeat from *.
Row 3: Ch 3, * ch 1, skip 1, dc 3, ch 1, skip 1, dc 1, repeat from *.
Row 4: Ch 3, *dc 2, ch 1, skip 1, dc 2, ch 1, skip 1, repeat from *, but last time dc 1 instead of ch1, skip 1.
Row 5: Same as Row 3.
Row 6: Same as Row 2.

A final note: For each of these rows, I've started out with a ch 3 as a replacement for a dc. There is another equally good (and sometimes better) way to start rows of dc's. --- Ch 2, then dc in the first not the second stitch, as we had been doing. The ch 2 is not a replacement for a dc. It just gives a more interesting edge. This ripple afghan pattern has an edge like this. It's done in sc, and so there is a ch 1 at the beginning of each row.

Picot Edging

First of all, I want to say that I've made this hanging kitchen towel thingy many times and have never given it a picot edging. I've never started and ended the edging with a slip stitch before either. But, there's always a first time for everything.
-- I have always made it with an edging, though.

When adding an edging in knitting, one has to be careful about row and stitch gauge. A knit stitch is about 1 1/2 times wider than it is tall (at least for a gauge of 4 sts and 6 rows per inch). So, the number of stitches to be picked up along a vertical edge is different than the number of rows along that edge.

On the other hand, a single crochet stitch is pretty much as tall as it is wide. When picking up stitches along a vertical edge, one would pick up 1 st off of a row of sc's and 2 sts off of a row of dc's and 3 sts off of a row of tr's, etc. (A dc is about twice as tall as a sc, and a tr is about 3 times as tall.) The picture shows a picked up edge (plus some picots).

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After finishing off the buttonhole and weaving in the ends, I started with another color of thread. As usual, for starting any crochet project, I made a slip stitch knot around the hook. Then since I wanted an almost invisible start to the edging, I did a slip stitch stitch into the bottom of the first sc in the project (as in the picture at the right). -- To get the yo through the starting loop more easily, I held one edge of the loop (the part of the loop with the loose end) with my left hand. That completed the slip stitch. Then, I did a sc into the edge of the next row, a sc row.

Then comes the first picot.

I used the first method of making picots (as described in the American Thread Company brochure excerpt). I chained 3 and then did a slip stitch into the top of the last sc. NexStitch has a nice video of the stitch.

As you can see, it is a bit difficult to do. That's probably why there is an alternative way to do the picot (as mentioned by both the booklet and NexStitch) -- namely, instead of doing a slip stitch, make another sc (or whatever stitch the picot is on top of) "in the same space" or, in other words, as if one were doing an increase.

Just doing a sc without either the slip stitch or the "increase" would make the picot too open.

One isn't limited to doing just 3 or 4 chains for a picot. It just depends on how large you want it to be. However, with more chain stitches, the inside of the loop of chain stitches becomes more visible, and it's naturally called a chain loop. One is also not limited to doing picots on top of sc's. It can be done on top of most any stitch. Picots also don't have to be restricted to edgings.

To finish this edging, repeat *sc 4, picot* around. For the buttonhole, pick up as many stitches as were skipped at the bottom of the buttonhole. End by making a slip stitch.

Cluster Stitch, Increasing, Decreasing

Increasing is easy to do in crocheting. One doesn't have to worry about which way the increase will lean (as one does in knitting). All one needs to do is crochet (single crochet or double crochet or ...) two or more times into the same stitch.

Decreasing is a little harder to do. But, again one doesn't have to worry about which way the decrease will lean (as one does in knitting). But, I'm going to talk about cluster sts first.

To make a cluster stitch of 3 triple crochet sts (as in the diagram at the right from a booklet from the American Thread Company), start a triple crochet st but do not do the last step. Two loops remain on the hook. Then start another triple crochet st in the same st but do not do the last step. Three loops remain on the hook. Then start a third triple crochet st in the same st but do not do the last step. Four loops remain on the hook. To complete the st, yo (as in the picture) and pull the yarn through all loops. The stitch is complete, and just one loop remains on the hook. The pattern at the right could be written as:

*cs (3 tr), ch 2, skip 2*, repeat * to *

with cs standing for cluster stitch and 3 tr showing that 3 triple crochet sts are combined to form the cs. (But, there are very few standard abbreviations in crocheting or, for that matter, very little in the way of standard terminology.)

NexStitch calls a st like this a popcorn, bobble, or puff and reserves the term cluster st to one that creates a decrease.

Decreases are made as follows: (This time, I'll use an example of decreasing in double crochet. But, "triple" or "single" could be substituted wherever the word "double" appears in the directions.) -- To double crochet 2 sts together, start a double crochet st but do not do the last step. Two loops remain on the hook. Then start another double crochet st in the next st but do not do the last step. Three loops remain on the hook (as in the picture). To complete the st, yo and pull the yarn through all loops. The stitch is complete, and just one loop remains on the hook.

Here are some abbreviations.
sc2tog -- single crochet next 2 sts together
tr2tog -- triple crochet next 2 sts together
dc3tog -- double crochet next 3 sts together.
Directions for dc3tog: Start a double crochet st but do not do the last step. Two loops remain on the hook. Start a double crochet st in the next st but do not do the last step. Three loops remain on the hook. Start a double crochet st in the next st but do not do the last step. Four loops remain on the hook . To complete the st, yo and pull the yarn through all loops. The stitch is complete, and just one loop remains on the hook.

After looking at last week's creation, I decided that I wanted it more rounded. So I frogged it to the last lace mesh row and replaced the sc row by:

Turn, ch2, skip 1, *skip 1, dc, ch1* across, ending with skip 1, double crochet together next st with the third st after that. (This takes the st count down to 9 from 15.)

(Then the buttonhole row is:)
ch 1, sc 1, ch 4, skip 5, sc 1, slip st 1.

a buttonhole

A horizontal crocheted buttonhole is generally made in a row of sc's simply because sc's have a little height but not much. And so, the buttonhole would have a little height but not much. The bottom of the buttonhole is the top of the last row. (Skip as many sts as the buttonhole is wide.) It doesn't have to be a row of sc's as it is here. It could be a mesh or a row of dc's or .... The top of the buttonhole is made by ch sts.

Here's what the mesh from last week looks like -- unstretched and unblocked. I ended up with 15 sts across. Then, for this go-around, this is what I did next:

Turn, ch2, sc across.
Turn, ch1, sc4 (I did ch 1 instead of ch 2 to give the edge a more rounded look. I'm going to end the row with a slip st to give the other corner a rounded look as well.)

The next question is how many ch sts to make to create a buttonhole.

The general answer is "however many sts skipped". However, ch sts stretch more than sc sts. The second picture shows this.



For the third picture, I did 1 fewer ch st than I skipped in the previous row.





And here's the final picture.

The last row is:

ch 1, sc 4, ch 4, skip 5, sc 4, slip st 1.

Terrycloth Kitchen Towel Hanger

Returning to the terrycloth kitchen towel that we've been working on, off and on.......
Here's where we left off:

Row 1: Sc 1 into cloth, *ch 2, sc 1 into cloth* to end.
Row 2: Turn, ch 2, sc 2 in each ch sp across, sc 1.
Row 3. Turn, ch3, dc in next st in previous row, *ch 1, skip 2, dc 1* across, dc 1.
The pattern will, in most likelihood, not work out exactly. So, you can fudge by skipping only 1 st before making the last two dc's of the row or else by ending dc, skip 1, dc.

The ch 2 at the beginning of Row 2 is a substitute for a sc. The ch 3 at the beginning of Row 3 acts as a substitute for a dc. The last st of Row 2 (and also Row 3) is made into the last of the ch sts that started the previous row.

To continue:
Repeat Rows 2-3 until there are somewhere around 10 sts across (between 9 and 15), ending with a Row 3. The picture shows the first repeat of Row 2. The first of 2 sc's is being worked into a ch sp.

Then, we will switch to a different kind of mesh. The sc's in the previous mesh gave the piece a little sturdiness that was needed due the rapid decrease in width. Now, we're going to use a different mesh pattern and not change the width.

Row 1: Turn, ch 3, *ch 1, skip 1, dc 1* across.
The ch 3 at the beginning of the row serves as a substitute for a dc. The ch 1 creates a ch sp (chain space). So, even though the row starts out with 4 ch sts, it's really a dc substitute plus a ch.
Row 2: Turn, ch3, dc 1, *ch 1, skip 1, dc 1* across, dc 1.
The last dc of the row is made into the last of the 3 ch sts that served as a substitute for a dc in the previous row. The rest of the dc's can either be made into a chain space or into a ch st (whichever, as long as it's consistent). It's much easier to dc into a ch sp than into a ch st.

Repeat these 2 rows to around 5". Next week, we'll do a buttonhole for the hanger.

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As a side note: Last week, I said that double triple and triple triple sts were rarely used. Well, then I joined the Antique Pattern Library Yahoo! group. The first pattern that I looked at was a large doily pattern that had dtr's in the first round.

Treble Crochet Stitch, etc

The treble (or triple) crochet stitch is about three times the height of a single crochet stitch. (It is called a double-triple or double-treble crochet stitch in England and several Commonwealth countries and is abbreviated d tr c, dtr, or 4-c.) In American notation, it is abbreviated tc or tr c or tr or 3-c. The photo at the right is from the American Thread Company booklet and shows both the front and back of the stitch. NexStitch has a video.
(The caption on the picture is for the double treble crochet st -- discussed later.)

This st and the other two sts discussed here are used mainly in lace edgings or doilies, etc and in Irish lace. They're fairly thin with definite space between the sts. They can be used in combination with the sc and dc sts to form shells.

Again, one starts with a single loop on the hook (and ends with a single loop on the hook). The difference is how many yo's to make. For the single crochet st, there was no yo before placing the hook through the top of a st in the previous row (or into a ch sp). For a dc, there was a single yo. For a tr c, there are 2 yo's.

Step 1. Yarn over (yo) twice. That is, wrap the thread around the hook twice (from the back over the hook to the front). There are 3 loops on the hook.

Step 2. With the yarn in back, put the hook through the top of the desired st -- or whatever (as you did for a single crochet st), yo, and draw the thread through. There are now 4 loops on the hook.

Step 3. Yarn over and draw the thread through 2 loops on the hook. There are now 3 loops on the hook. (The pic shows the yo part of this step.)

Step 4. Yarn over and draw the thread through 2 loops on the hook. There are now 2 loops on the hook.

Step 5. Yarn over and draw the thread through 2 loops. There is now only 1 loop on the hook, and the treble crochet is complete.

Going further:
One might ask oneself what would happen if one made 3 instead of 2 yo's to start out. The answer is that one would have a double treble crochet st -- shown in the pic at the right -- abbreviated dtr or d tr c or 4-c. (It is called a triple treble crochet st in England.) Here is a link to the video at NexStitch. This st is about 4 times the height of a sc. It is not used very often even in lace.

The picture at the right is of the double treble crochet st.

Similarly, one could do 4 yo's to start out. The result is a triple treble crochet st (or treble treble crochet st or tr tr c or trtr or 5-c). NexStitch has a video. (I assume it would be called a double treble treble crochet st in England.) It's about 5 times the height of a sc.

Have you ever wondered what to do with all those swatches?

Well these Swatchies are absolutely adorable.