Catherine’s Wheel

Catherine's Wheel is a very popular crochet stitch pattern and one that you typically see on a lot of blankets and Afghans. I have used this stitch pattern to make an Afghan and it's absolutely beautiful, but, of course you can use this stitch pattern for just about any project that you want. It is really interesting. Typically you see it worked in two colors, although you could combine all sorts of colors into your Catherine's Wheel project and it will look great. This particular stitch pattern is known as a little bit of a yarn eater and the reason for that is that we are going to be gathering up stitches.

We're gonna be making clusters where we're working double crochet seven together and then we're also creating fans where we are double crocheting seven times into the same stitch. So just keep that in mind when you're thinking about using this for a project, even something like a blanket. Your blanket can actually get pretty heavy with the Catherine's Wheel stitch pattern just because of its construction. But it's totally worth using all that yarn because it's so interesting and so beautiful. Here I have a swatch of the Catherine's Wheel and I have worked my swatch such that my circular motifs here are centered on my fabric.

Sometimes you'll see this stitch pattern worked a little bit different than what I'm doing here, and in those particular configurations, you don't always get your sides matching up exactly. But here I did a little bit of planning ahead of time so that my sides on each side edge look the same and that's how I like to do mine 'cause I like it when everything's symmetrical and centered on my fabric. So let's go ahead and work this. I'm gonna work it in two colors, but keep in mind you can switch your colors every two rows after the setup row however you like. So to begin, you need to start with the number of chains being a multiple of 10 plus four, and again, you might see a slightly different configuration in different stitch dictionaries or online.

I'm choosing to do a multiple of 10 plus four because again, I want my stitch pattern to be centered on the fabric. So what I have here is 34 chains and that's a multiple of 10 plus four because 10 times three is 30, plus four is 34. So to begin, I am going to double crochet into the fourth chain from the hook. So the first three chains are going to count as a double crochet, that's my beginning chain three and that's gonna count as a double crochet. So we're gonna start by working into the fourth chain.

So one, two, three, four and we are going to put three double crochets into that first stitch. So there's one. Two, and three. Now we're going to skip the next three chains. One, two, three and single crochet into each of the next three chains.

So one single crochet into each chain. So one, two, and three. Now we're gonna skip three chains again. One, two, three, and now this time we're gonna put seven double crochets into the next chain. So we have one, two, three, four.

Five. Six, and seven. Skip three chains again. One, two, three. And then we're going to do a single crochet into each of the next three chains.

Skip three chains again, one, two, three. Seven double crochets into the next chain. So you can see this beginning row we are repeating making these fans of double crochets and then they're separated by the three single crochets and that's what you will commonly see in Catherine's Wheel is that you do have those single crochets going in between your fans here. Let's see how many double crochets we have in this one. One, two, three, four, five, six, one more.

Now we're gonna skip three chains again. One, two, three and single crochet into the next three chains. You'll keep repeating that until you have four chains left. And then now we have our four chains. So we're gonna skip three, one, two, three, and then we're going to put four double crochets into that last chain.

After this row we're gonna be switching colors. So on my fourth double crochet, I am going to change to my color B. So this whole first part, we worked in color A and now we're gonna change to color B. The way I like to change colors is on the last stitch of the row before I'm gonna start the new color, I wait until I'm at the last step of my stitch and then switch to my new color. So what do I mean by that?

Let me back this up so I can show you. So my last stitch is a double crochet. So I'm going to yarn over, insert my hook into my stitch, yarn over, pull up a loop and then to complete a double crochet, you would yarn over, draw through two, yarn over, draw through two. I'm gonna yarn over, draw through two. So I have stopped and all I have to do is that final step of yarn over draw through two again.

It's at this point that I'm gonna change colors. This again is just how I like to change colors in a project but you should change colors however you like. Whatever you normally do is fine. So I'm gonna just use green here for my color B. So I'm gonna get a lengthy yarn so I can leave enough to weave in later.

And then I'm gonna use this as my yarn over with my new color and draw through two, and so what that's done is it's bringing my new color right up to where it needs to be to work row two of my Catherine's Wheel. So we have row one done, now let's work row two. For row two, now we are gonna be still doing some single crochets but we're also gonna be adding in chain threes and we're also gonna be working a cluster or double crocheting seven together. Depending on the designer or the stitch dictionary you are using, you may see these clusters called double crochet seven together cluster, all sorts of different names. I like to use the double crochet together because there are situations at the beginning and ends of certain rows where you're gonna have to maybe do a double crochet three together or double crochet four together and then in the middle of your stitch pattern, you're doing a double crochet seven together.

So for me personally, I find it easier just to use that nomenclature of saying double crochet seven together versus having, you know, cluster, beginning cluster, ending cluster. In my mind that's what works best. But again, different designers, different stitch dictionaries will tell you different things. So we have our new color here, color B. So we're gonna chain one and then we're gonna single crochet into that first stitch and then single crochet into the next stitch.

And now we're gonna chain three. One, two, three. And now we're gonna do that cluster or double crochet seven together. So when you're doing this, you're going to work each double crochet up until that last step and then we're going to crochet them all together at the end, so let me show you what I mean. So we're gonna be working into each of the next seven stitches, so yarn over, insert, hook into next stitch, yarn over, pull up a loop.

Yarn over, draw through two, we're gonna stop there and go into the next stitch. Yarn over, insert your hook into the next stitch. Yarn over, draw up a loop, yarn over, draw through two. We're gonna stop there. We're gonna keep doing that until we've gone into the next seven stitches, so you will have eight loops on your hook.

One, two, three, four, five, six. So you have something that looks like this, it's kind of scary. And now we're gonna yarn over and draw through all eight loops. I find the easiest way to do this is to make sure I'm turning that hook down to pull through all of those loops at once. And this, of course, is one of those stitch patterns where really using a smooth yarn is going to be to your advantage because if you're using something really fuzzy, maybe you're trying to hold a mohair along with it, and I'm not saying you can't do that because it's your project and you should do what you want, but a smooth yarn here does tend to be helpful because you do have to get your hook through a lot of loops on some of these.

So once we've finished that double crochet seven together, we're gonna chain three, one, two, three and then single crochet into the next three stitches and we're gonna just keep repeating that all the way down. So we've done our three single crochet, we're gonna chain three and now we're going to double crochet seven together using the next seven stitches. So what can be a little bit tricky and kind of confused me at first about Catherine's Wheel is that you have a chain three, and obviously not always, but a lot of times, when you're making a chain in your stitch pattern, you're usually skipping stitches somewhere to accommodate for the fact that you've made a chain. You're not doing this here, you have your chain three but we're still starting that double crochet seven together with that next stitch. These chains, if we look over here, these chains are really just helping you keep your fabric nice and straight here versus if you didn't have these chains and you went straight over to the single crochet.

This would all start to get bunched up which is a totally different look and not what we're going for here. So we're using these chains really to help keep everything flat opposed to, you know, skipping stitches and making it lacy in all that business. So again, now that we have our chain three, we're gonna double crochet seven together. So there's one stitch. Two.

Three. Four. Five. Six. And seven, So if we did this right, we should have eight loops on the hook.

So you are always gonna have one more loop then how many double crochets you prepped. So one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. So that's correct. So now to complete this, we're gonna yarn over and draw through all eight, just like that. Chain three.

One, two, three And then single crochet once into each of the next three stitches. And I have one more valley here so you can guess what we're gonna do, we're gonna chain three and then double crochet seven together. Okay, so we should have eight loops on our hook. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Now we complete that double crochet seven together by doing that yarn over and drawing through all seven, chain three.

And at this point we just have two stitches left. So we're gonna single crochet into each of them. And this last single crochet is going into the top of the beginning chain three. So that takes care of row two. So what we have done here on row two is we've made the bottom half of this Wheel.

So here it's this cream right here. That's what we've done. So we're gonna continue with our color B or my green and we're gonna chain one and turn and single crochet into the two single crochets. Now we are at where we did that double crochet seven together. We're now gonna add seven double crochets into that stitch.

So we're gonna be skipping the chain three and working into this stitch. But it's important to note that when you actually double crochet seven together, you ended up with a loop that's over here and then this first chain one of the chain three is what makes this hole right here on your fabric and that's where you're gonna put your seven double crochets. So we're gonna yarn over and just go right into that loop there. It's a very obvious little hole where your seven double crochets should go. And now we're making the top half of that wheel.

We're gonna skip the chain three and then single crochet into each of the next three single crochets and we're just gonna keep doing that all the way across. So now we've come to our next little Wheel. We're just going to seven double crochet into the loop right above where we did the cluster or the double crochet seven together. Just make sure we have seven. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven and single crochet into the next three stitches.

Again, we skipped over that chain three space and we're gonna do that one more time for this final wheel. Coming to the end of our piece, so we're gonna skip that last chain three and then we're gonna single crochet into each of these last two stitches. But I'm gonna be changing colors here again. So I am going to yarn over and pull up a loop and then cut my yarn and we'll bring our color A, my pink back into the mix here. And I'm gonna join it the same way I did the last time.

I'm gonna complete that single crochet by doing a yarn over with my new color and pulling through just like that. And so that completes our first wheel in our color B. Now we're ready to start row four, so we're gonna do a chain three and that's gonna count as a double crochet. And now we're gonna do a double crochet three together. So this is what I was talking about at the beginning of the video where some designers will call them clusters, but then you have to have beginning clusters and ending clusters.

I just like to say we're gonna double crochet three stitches together. So we're going to, we're actually gonna skip this first stitch because we're saying that our chain three counted as our double crochet. And so we're gonna double crochet three together over the next three stitches. And so because we're double crocheting three together, we've got four loops on our hook when we're gonna yarn over and draw through all four, just like that. And then we're gonna chain three, one, two, three, and single crochet once into each of the next three stitches.

Chain three. And now we're gonna work a double crochet seven together again. So if we take a look though at what we're doing here, you can start to sort of read your crochet and read your fabric to know what you're gonna do. So when we're at the top of our wheel here, that's where our single crochets are gonna go and then when we come down into what I think of as the valley, that's when we're gonna be doing that cluster of double crochet seven together. So I have my chain three done already.

So now let's do double crochet seven together. So we have our eight loops on the hook. We're gonna yarn over and then draw through all eight. That's my favorite part of this whole entire stitch pattern, I don't know what's so satisfying about drawing through all those stitches, but it's really fun. One of my favorite things to do in crochet actually.

We're adding our chain three, did three single crochets. Chain three again and now we're doing another cluster of the double crochet seven together. And we've done our seven. So we're gonna draw through now all eight loops on the hook, chain three. Single crochet into the next three stitches.

Chain three and then we're ending by doing a double crochet four together. So we have four stitches left, so we're gonna just be double crocheting all of those together. That's sort of our ending cluster. So one. Two.

Three, and four. So we have one, two, three, four, five loops on the hook yarn over, draw through all five. And I did a chain one just to close it off there. And so you can see we're getting this nice pattern forming. So now we just have row five to do, we're gonna chain three and turn and then put three more double crochets into this first stitch.

So we have one, two, and three. We're gonna be skipping our chain threes just like we did before and then single crocheting into the next three stitches. Skipping that chain three, doing seven double crochets into, again, that loop there that was made by the first chain of our chain three. And we're gonna just keep working that all the way down the row. This row is, as you can tell, very similar to what we did with the green, it's just the beginning and the ends are a little bit different because we're basically making these wheels that are sort of interlocking with each other.

And so because they're offset in this way, your beginnings and your ends are going to be a little bit different depending which color you're on or which row you're on and it's why this is a four row repeating pattern instead of like a two row repeating pattern. One, two, three, four, five. Do two more into this one, six and seven. Gonna do that all the way across and then for the end, you're gonna skip that final chain three and then you're just gonna put four double crochets into that last stitch. And that's it.

From there, you're just repeating your row. So if we were going to do another row of this, it would be at this point that I would switch to my other color and just keep working. The one thing I wanna point out though is that those are our four repeating rows. So you have your two green and then your two pink or whatever you choose as your color A and B. But if you end here, you're gonna have a very obvious wave to your pattern.

And depending on what you're making, that might be just fine. But if you're using this for a baby blanket or an Afghan, which again, this is most often where I see this stitch pattern being used, you want to end on a row where you worked those clusters, where you did those double crochet sevens together because what that does is create a flat edge, which is what I've done here. So I ended so that my top edge would be nice and flat. And now for this particular swatch that I worked ahead of time, when I was done, I took my pink, which was my color A, and I just did a little bit of a single crochet border around because I do feel like that really just makes it look finished and complete. Your edges can get a little bit wavy on the side.

So in some spots I might have even taken a half double crochet just to fill it out a little bit, and also, if you are doing this in two colors, you could decide to carry the yarn up the side. See, you might not even be able to see it on the back of the swatch. Here I had carried my yarn up, my cream from here to here, which is quite a long way for it to go. But I knew just to keep it a little bit loose, don't pull it too tight and then I knew I was gonna put the border on. So I just worked when I was working my border, I just worked over that strand.

But if you are going to do a bunch of different colors or depending on the type of project, you may need to cut the yarn every two rows and then decide how you're gonna deal with them. You can either crochet over your ends or weave in your ends. Either way, obviously that's something, well, if you're gonna crochet over your ends, you're gonna do that as you go anyway. But if you are gonna cut your yarn and you're going the weaving in your ends route, which is actually my preferred method, you're gonna wanna do that every few rows. I don't suggest leaving that till the end, especially if you're making something like a blanket.

That's gonna be a lot of ends to weave in at the end. But hopefully this gives you a better understanding of the Catherine's Wheel, and I hope that you go forward and try it in some of your own crochet projects.