Bordered Heart Filet Blanket

Bordered Heart Filet Blanket

Project Overview

The Bordered Heart Filet Blanket is a beginner-friendly crochet afghan designed by Keep Calm and Crochet On UK. This downloadable PDF pattern creates a decorative throw blanket featuring a charted filet crochet heart motif with a decorative shell stitch border. The finished piece combines classic filet crochet technique with an elegant edging, making it suitable for crafters new to the filet method.

What Is Being Made

This pattern produces a bordered blanket or afghan featuring a heart design created through filet crochet. The blanket incorporates a main body worked in filet stitch pattern following a chart, finished with a shell stitch border that frames the entire piece. The finished dimensions and exact yardage requirements are detailed within the pattern instructions.

Crochet Techniques Used

The Bordered Heart Filet Blanket employs several fundamental crochet techniques appropriate for beginners:

• Filet Crochet: The primary technique used for the blanket body, filet crochet creates an openwork fabric by alternating filled blocks and open spaces. This creates a mesh-like appearance that allows charted designs to be worked into the fabric.
• Shell Stitch Edging: A decorative border technique that creates a scalloped, shell-like edge around the perimeter of the blanket, adding visual interest and a finished appearance to the piece.
• Chart Reading: The pattern requires following a charted design provided on page 2, which guides the placement of blocks and spaces to create the heart motif.

Stitches Used

The pattern utilizes basic crochet stitches that are essential to filet crochet work:

• Chain Stitch (ch): Used for foundation chains and spacing throughout the pattern, including the initial chain of 149 stitches that establishes the blanket width.
• Treble Crochet (tr) and Double Crochet (dc): These stitches form the filled blocks in the filet pattern. The pattern instructions indicate working treble or double crochet stitches to create solid areas of the design.
• Single Crochet (sc): Used in the shell stitch border edging to anchor and space the decorative shell elements.
• Shell Stitch: A combination stitch consisting of multiple double crochet stitches worked into a single stitch, creating the characteristic shell or fan shape along the blanket edges.

Pattern Structure

The blanket is constructed in a logical sequence. The first three rows establish the foundation and basic filet pattern structure, creating 36 spaces and 37 blocks. Rows 4 through 174 follow a detailed chart that creates the heart motif and overall design. Once the main body is complete, a shell stitch border is worked around the perimeter with the right side facing, beginning in the upper right-hand corner and working around all edges.

Materials and Yarn Requirements

The Bordered Heart Filet Blanket is worked in double knit (DK) weight yarn, also known as light worsted weight. The pattern requires approximately 600 grams of yarn to complete the blanket. The sample shown in the pattern was created using Patons Baby Fab! in the colorway Pastel Pink, a DK weight yarn suitable for this project. Crocheters may substitute any DK weight yarn of similar yardage to create their own version in preferred colors.

Skill Level

Designated as a beginner-level pattern, the Bordered Heart Filet Blanket is designed to be accessible to crocheters new to filet techniques. While it involves chart reading and multiple rows of repetitive stitching, the stitches themselves are fundamental crochet techniques that beginners can master with practice.