Birds on my Buffet...

Time is flying by and we are on into the heart of fall.  I'm excited for some of the projects I've been working on... 

A week or so ago, I finished my "coppery-fall" buffet runner.  I'm excited, because I made my first filet crochet runner using a bird chart from the Filet Crochet Birds Sweater, 1920, reworked by Sandi Marshall and posted on About.com.  

I used 4 skeins of Red Heart Fashion Size 3 crochet thread in Copper Mist and a size E crochet hook.

To create a larger chart for the runner, I pasted her image of the two birds facing each other into a basic word processing program.  I arranged two of the charts (for four birds total) side-by-side to get a chart of the whole runner.  I ended the top of the runner with two open mesh rows above the birds, and a final solid row.  As I crocheted, I ignored the solid squares that ran between the two charts, turning them into open mesh squares, and leaving the solid border only on the outside edges.

Finished and ready to put on the buffet! 

To figure out the number of starting stitches in a filet crochet project, count up the number of boxes along one side of your pattern.  I started crocheting at the bottom of the runner and worked my way up, using a 3 dc mesh (1 dc, ch 1, skip next st, 1 dc).  For a 3 dc mesh, calculate the length of your starting chain by multiplying 2 by the number of boxes in the chart, and add 1.  Add three more chains at the end of your starting chain to serve as the 1st dc of your next row.  

So, for this buffet scarf, I chained 216 + 1 + 3 for my initial chain, for a total of 220.  I then simply followed the chart I had pieced together from the beautiful pattern, and went to work.

When I finished the last row, I wanted to make a border for it to help hide some of the waviness of the edges.  For the edging…

• To start: ch 1, turn, sc in same st, ch 5, sc in same st (first corner loop made)
• Across the long side: sc in next 3 sts, {picot in the top of next st, sc in next 3 sts,} repeat { } to corner - picot should line up with the top of the dc in the filet mesh 2 rows down (picot - sc, ch 3, sc in same st)
• At the corner: sc in corner st, ch 5, sc in same st
• Across the short side: sc, {picot in next st, sc} repeat { } until corner - picot should line up with the dc or the filet crochet mesh 2 “columns” in
• Repeat corner, repeat the long side, repeat corner, repeat short side
• To finish: Join with slst to top of 1st sc, cut thread, weave in ends.

This is what the corner looks like...

I blocked the runner by pinning it down to some blocking mats from KnitPicks, sprayed it with water and let it dry completely.

I love how this turned out!  It was pretty quick and easy, although I would not recommend working on it late at night when you are tired, since you have to count carefully so the image turns out correctly.  I learned this after starting and restarting the same row several times...

Off to other autumn adventures!