Filet Lace: It’s An Upside Down World

Knitters – Don’t try this with most lace!

It’s usually not an Upside Down World in lace without some design finesse.

Filet lace is an exception to the norm that rows cannot just be knit in reverse order to produce a vertically symmetrical, upside down lace design.

The Directional Nature of Knitting Lace

The stitch sequences used for knitting most lace are directional; i.e. they are not vertically symmetrical.

See what happens with Barbara Walker’s popular “Lace Bat” design in her Charted Knitting Designs book.

Lace Bat knitted from Barbara Walker’s _Charted Knitting Designs_ page 179.

Here is the above pattern with rows reversed. Vertically aligned yarn overs are ok but everything else is quite off from the original.

Barbara Walker’s lace bat – as per original instructions on bottom; knitted with rows in reverse order on top

Turning the 2nd attempt 180 degrees to wing-down reveals even further just how dis-similar it is from the original.

Lace Bat knitted from Barbara Walker _Charted Knitting Designs_ page 179.

Upside down lace bat made from just knitting the rows in reverse order

Filet Lace: An exception to the norm

This month’s KAL project, I Heart Filet Lace, highlights the “upside down” feature of filet lace knitting. You just knit the scarf end-to-end, starting with the filet lace heart motif  then reverse the rows at the other end to produce a vertical mirror image.

 A lot of people prefer the ends of their scarves to look the same when worn. If you are one of those, I hope you are enjoying this month’s design for knitting a “when you are done, you are done” end-to-end filet lace scarf.

Do you like your scarves to be the same on both ends?