A couple weeks back, in this article, I highlighted a few public domain resources for needlework, one of which included lots of illustrations of filet lace, which is a kind of woven needlelace that’s produced on a square net ground.

The topic generated some questions from various readers about using filet lace patterns – which are gridded – as cross stitch (and other counted work) projects.

In the course of the discussion, the question of how to “read” the filet lace as a gridded chart came up. Sometimes, when you’re looking at filet lace illustrated in these old publications, you’re seeing black and white photos of the completed woven pattern, which can be much more difficult to read than a chart would be.

The easy solution is to chart the filet pattern. There are a couple ways you can do that. Let’s talk about how, using this particular image: