When I began to be interested in Irish Crochet, one of the things I loved was exquisite motifs joined together by delicate netting. I awed over collars, cuffs, tops and dresses; they looked so attractive. One day I thought, I’d like to be able to do that.
I’ve come across many terms for netting; mesh, ground stitches, trellis, filling. Some netting is just plain while others feature a picot or clones knot. One of my favourite styles of netting is honeycomb-shaped; here is a link to that method in a video.
When I first tried netting, I found netting really difficult and a skill onto its self. My first project with netting was a butterfly back in January. The challenge was to make a freeform motif with Romanian cord and fill it with netting. I got on fine with the cord but when it came time to fill it in, I really struggled. If you watch a video of someone netting you can see that number one, they are really fast but more importantly, they hold the crochet hook at a different angle to how you hold it for other crochet. When I tried to copy this method, the yarn kept on falling off my hook. I never mastered the technique with the butterfly and thus it took me ages to finish it. I would pick up the crocheted piece make a few chain stitches, lay it back down, see if I had the right amount of stitches once it was laid flat, adjust, lay it back down again, estimate the number of stitches needed to get to the next chain space, pick it up again, and so on. I was ready to throw it away halfway through but I persevered.
My current project is a collar using netting to join the motifs. For some reason, best known to myself, I decided to make the collar on top of a shirt collar. I don’t remember coming across this in a photo but I think I thought it would give it more structure. I started this collar before my hatred of netting began and as this is my year for completing incomplete projects, it had to be finished. My method still needs some refining but I’m getting there.
Netting, I will master you.
I am so happy to read this.