Filet cafe curtains

[Sue Edwards-Catt]

I'm going to be making, I hope, some filet cafe curtains. I want to make 2 white and 1 pink (mums kitchen is a very pale pink colour)

 

I'll give you what the magazine states. English magazine

 

Materials: 140gr of No. 20 crochet cotton. A size 1.25mm (No. 3) crochet hook.

 

This is for 1 curtain, I'm going to be making 3 so I need to triple the amount of yarn I need, which makes it 420gr. Now I've worked it out that I will need: 14 white & 7 pink 20gr balls of cotton.

 

No. 20 thread is super fine stuff!! I'm still not well versed in all things crochet, but can I substitute the #20 for a different kind of cotton? Say a 3ply? Or 2ply? I ask because #20 is not on the cheap side of the $$$.

 

Thanks ladies and gents for your help!

[Granny Square]

I recommend that you stick with mercerized cotton, versus unmercerized heavier yarn, because it will look better..  Filet work looks worse, the larger the yarn used (you have to stand back farther to see the design, if that makes sense).  Filet really needs to be crisply blocked and starched a bit, which works better with the smaller stuff.

 

99% of modern doily patterns use #10 mercerized cotton (1 size bigger than #20), which might be cheaper/more available than the #20  (here in the US stores, you sometimes don't even see sizes smaller than #10).  Example, I make a lot of doilies, and I use a ball of thread that is something like 1.5 miles long (.45KG) for under $20 (13 GBP).  This would be enough for your curtains if all white--but check the yardage, that's more critical than total weight.

 

Also, consider that if you use something bigger, the curtains would be bigger, you might get away with omitting some rows and pattern repeats (depending on what the pattern looks like)

[magiccrochetfan]

I can't add anything to what Granny Square said, but I just want to reiterate that if you change the weight of thread you use, there will be a definite increase in size.  It is surprising to me how much bigger the finished item in size 10 thread is than size 20.  If you don't mind making adjustments to the pattern, that will work fine.

 

For the reasons Granny Square said, I wouldn't try to go any bigger than size 10 for curtains.