Starburst Stitch Pattern

The starburst stitch pattern is a stitch pattern that's very similar to the Catherine's wheel, if you're familiar with that stitch pattern. And it creates these motifs that sort of interlock on each other, and just makes a really cool texture and a really cool geometric pattern on your fabric. Here I actually have a sample of the Catherine's wheel, and you can see here we're making more of that circle shape that comes along with Catherine's wheel. Of course it's a wheel, so wheel is circle. And then over here with this starburst pattern, we are making more of a diamond shape. So both of these are beautiful and lovely for lots of projects, but I'm gonna show you how to make this one in this video. You can actually make this one in one or two colors. When I first stumbled upon this pattern, I found it in one color, and I actually stitched it here for you to see. And you can really see there's quite a lot of texture to it, even just in one color. But I think where the stitch pattern really shines is when you work it in two colors. So we're gonna work color A, we're gonna do the chain in color A, and then row one. And then rows two through five, we're gonna do two rows in a color B, and then two rows, we'll go back to color A in order to make this nice stripe. So you're getting sort of stripes and diamonds at the same time. I just think it's really fun. And you could use this for baby blankets, you could make a cowl, a hat. You could put this on all sorts of projects, of course. So let's take a look at how to make it. We're gonna start by chaining a multiple of eight plus two. So for my little swatch that I'm going to be making here in this video, I have chained 26 because eight times three is 24, plus two is 26. So the first thing I'm gonna do is do a single crochet in the second chain from the hook. And then skip three chains, one, two, three. And now I'm gonna put nine double crochets into that next chain. So they're all going into that one chain. I like when I'm working my crochet patterns to work in the back bump or on the backside of the beginning chain, but you can work it however you normally would work into the chain, but I'm always working into that back bump on my chain. So I have one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, and nine. And now we're gonna skip three chains again. One, two, three, and single crochet into the next chain. Skip three chains, one, two, three, and then do another nine double crochets into the next one. There's nine. So now we're gonna skip three again. And sometimes you have to look pretty closely at your chains after you've done that nine double crochets into the chain just because your chain does start to pull a little bit because you've really elongated that one loop. So just take your time as you're working along. So one, two, three, and then single crochet into the next chain. Skip three, one, two, three. Nine double crochets into the next. And you would just keep repeating that until you have four chains left. And then you're gonna skip three chains, one, two, three, and then single crochet into that last chain. And we're also going to change colors at the same time. So we're going to insert our hook, yarn over, draw up a loop. And then to finish our single crochet, normally we would yarn over and draw through two loops, but we're gonna change colors here. So I'm just going to snip my yarn leaving a tail. And you can either crochet over your tails or weave them in later. If you do go the route of weaving in your ends, I suggest doing it as you go just because depending on your project, you could end up with a lot of ends to weave in at the end and that can be a daunting task if you leave them all for the end. But I'm just going to now complete that final single crochet with my new color. I'm gonna leave a tail that I'll weave in later and I'll yarn over and draw through the last two to complete the stitch. And so that takes care of row one. And you can see we've made these little fans here. And so on the next row, we're gonna start filling in these little fans with little cluster stitches or we're gonna be doing some double crocheting together. So depending on where we are in our fabric, in the middle here we're gonna be double crocheting nine together. And then at the beginning and the end, we're gonna be doing less. So let's work our row two. So for row two, we're gonna start with the chain three. One, two, three, and turn. And now we're going to double crochet the next four stitches together. So we're gonna just go into each stitch and then we're gonna do a double crochet four together. So we're gonna go into the next stitch, yarn over, pull up a loop, yarn over, draw through two. We're gonna stop at that point and not finish that stitch. And go to the next one. Yarn over, insert our hook, yarn over, draw up a loop, yarn over, draw through two, and stop. And so we'll do that twice more. And so now we have our four stitches and then we have one extra loop on the hook. You're always gonna have one more loop on the hook than how many stitches you are crocheting together. So here we're doing a double crochet four together. So we have five loops on the hook. So we're gonna yarn over and draw through all five loops. And then keep on going. We're gonna chain four, one, two, three, four, and then single crochet into the next stitch. Now we're gonna chain three, one, two, three. And you might be thinking, why did we chain four over on this side of the single crochet and over here now we're only gonna be doing a chain three? Well, the reason being is that the first chain of this chain four is closing up that double crochet cluster. So I'm calling it a double crochet four together. You also sometimes see these called a cluster. And very often, you're gonna want to have that chain one following the cluster, especially if it's a large one. Like here, we're gonna be doing a double crochet nine together next. So you're gonna have one extra chain after you've completed all that double crocheting together. So we have that chain three. And so now we're going to double crochet nine together. So we're gonna end up with a total of 10 loops on our hook. So this one, it's pretty important that you do this with a smooth yarn, and something that you can get your hook through easily, because we're gonna be pulling our hook through 10 loops all at once. So I'm gonna do my double crochet nine together over the next nine stitches. And one thing I like to do is make sure I'm reading my crochet. And what I noticed was that my fifth one or the very center of that double crochet nine together is into that single crochet. So as you're working along and you're counting, that one should be your center one, which would be your fifth one that you're working into. So now let's do that double crochet nine together. So there's one, and again, we're stopping here at this point going into the next one, two, three, four, five. Here, we're going into that single crochet. Six, seven, eight, and nine. So right now, we have a whole bunch of loops all on our hook but here comes the most satisfying part. We're gonna yarn over and we're gonna draw through all 10 loops on the hook. And so we're really bringing this together here. And so that's why now we have that extra chain, because that first chain of the chain four really is just sitting over the top of that cluster of double crochet stitches. So that was our first chain of our chain four. Two, three, four. And then single crochet into the next stitch. And then chain three, one, two, three. And then we're gonna do a double crochet nine together again. Here I am at my fifth one, and I'm noting that yes, I am in fact going through that single crochet so I know I'm in the right spot. Okay, I've done my nine. So I have 10 loops on the hook. I'm gonna yarn over. And notice that I'm turning the hook down. I find it easiest to turn that hook towards me and down as I'm going through all of those loops, because it's way less likely to catch on one of those loops if your hook is pointed down. The actual hook is down. And then we'll chain four, one, two, three, and four, and single crochet into the next stitch. One, two, three, that's a chain three. And now we're going to double crochet five together. So at the beginning over here, we did a chain three, which counts as a double crochet, and then we double crocheted four together. So here we're gonna double crochet five together and that's gonna make our ends match each other. So one, two, three, four, and five. So we have six loops on the hook. So we're gonna yarn over, draw through all five and then chain one to close it. And so that takes care of row two. And so we used row two to fill in the valleys that were created from the fans on the previous row. So now we are ready to work our row three. So we're gonna chain three, one, two, three, and then we are going to double crochet four times into that chain one where we closed our cluster on the end. So one, two, three, and four. And then single crochet into the next single crochet. And then we're going to be skipping all the chain spaces. So we skipped the chain space here and then went into the single crochet. We're skipping the chain space here. And now we're going to be working our nine double crochets. And we're actually gonna be working them into this loop right here. Let me get my, I have a knitting needle here. So there's this loop here that's created by the first chain one of the chain four from the previous row. So that's where we're gonna work our nine double crochets. So we have one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, and nine. And then skip the chain space, single crochet into the next one, skip the chain space nine double crochets into that next chain that closed our cluster from the previous row. We're gonna once again skip the chain space, single crochet into the next single crochet, skip that last chain space. And then we are gonna put five double crochets into the top chain or third chain of the beginning chain three from the previous row. And we're gonna switch colors on the last stitch. So that's three, four, and here's five. So we're gonna come to the point where we just have that final yarn over, draw through two to complete. And we're gonna stop at that point. Cut our yarn. And then we'll go back to our color A or you could even put in another new color if you wanted to. You don't have to necessarily just do this in two colors. So I just did a yarn over and I pulled through those last two loops to complete the stitch. And we've joined our new color. So now we're ready to do row four. We're going to chain one and turn. And then single crochet into the first stitch. Now we're going to chain three. And now we are once again gonna be doing that cluster of double crocheting the next nine stitches together. Just like before, I'm just kind of reading my fabric as I go, and I'm noticing that I am double crocheting that fifth stitch into that single crochet, so I know that I haven't gotten off by a stitch or anything. Okay, so we have hopefully 10 loops on the hook. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10. Yes, we do. So now we're gonna yarn over and draw through all 10. Chain four, one, two, three, four. And then single crochet into the next stitch. Chain three, one, two, three, and then double crochet nine together once again. Here we are at the fifth one. It's going into that single crochet. And there's our ninth. So yarn over, draw through all the loops on your hook, and chain four, one, two, three, and four, single crochet into the next stitch. Chain three. And we're gonna do one more double crochet nine together. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10. We have our nine double crochets with our one extra loop so we know we're in the right spot. So we're gonna yarn over and draw through all 10 loops. Chain four, one, two, three, four. And then we are going to just put one single crochet into the top of that beginning chain three that we had. And there we go. So that takes care of row four. But now we're gonna work row five. But I just wanted to stop at this point to point something out. And that is, as you're working this stitch pattern you want to think about what your project is and what you're making it for. So you're likely gonna want this top edge to be flat. So you're gonna wanna either stop on row two, which would've been our green here, our color B. 'Cause that would've made a flat-top edge. Or here is row four where we're making that flat-top edge. So if you're working this for, say, a blanket or a cowl, well, even a cowl, maybe you would want the fans at the top. But if you want something with a flat edge you're gonna have to stop on rows two or four. And we're gonna go ahead and continue with row five. So we're gonna chain one and turn. Single crochet into that first stitch. Now we're going to be skipping the chain space and doing nine double crochets into that first chain that closed our cluster from the previous row. Skipping the chain space again, we're gonna single crochet into the next stitch, skip the chain space, and do nine more double crochets right above that cluster from the previous row. And we'll just keep working that all the way down the road to the end. We've come to our last chain space so we're gonna skip it just like we've been skipping all those chain spaces. And we're gonna single crochet into this last stitch. Now I'm gonna stop here, but if you were changing colors, you would stop right before that last yarn over, draw through two and change colors. But I'm just gonna end off here. So I'm gonna just finish that single crochet, trim my yarn, and fasten off. And this is what I was saying about stopping on rows two or four, because here I've stopped on row five and you could see I have the little fans here at the top. Which, like I said, there's places where you probably would want to stop your pattern just like that. It could add a nice little detail to your project. But if I was making something like a baby blanket and I've started with that flat end here I would work one more row at least, so that then I was ending on row two because you are just then, at this point, gonna be repeating rows two through five. And that's all there is to this. It's a really beautiful stitch pattern. It does eat up quite a bit of yarn because you're obviously making these really big fans with nine double crochets all going into one stitch. And then these really huge clusters of double crocheting nine stitches together. So this is one that you do have to do a little bit of planning with because it is kind of a yarn-eater. But it's such a beautiful stitch pattern. I think even it would be fun to maybe play around with two different gradient yarns and work this stitch pattern. And I think you could come up with just a really cool and funky piece that just made lots of beautiful color combinations as you go. So I hope that you enjoyed learning how to do the starburst stitch pattern. And I hope that you incorporate it into your future projects.