Puffs, bobbles and clusters · Intermediate
Catherine wheel stitch
Catherine wheel stitch builds round wheels out of two halves. On one row, seven stitches of double crochet (UK treble) are worked together into a cluster, which closes at one point: the eye. On the next row, a shell of seven double crochets is worked into that eye. The cluster is the lower half of a wheel and the shell is the upper half. Worked in two colors, two rows of each, every wheel comes out in one color.
How to work it
Seven unfinished stitches
On the next row, chain 3 before each cluster. Then work a double crochet into each of the next seven stitches, leaving the last loop of each one on the hook: yarn over, hook in, pull up a loop, yarn over, pull through two loops. The seven stitches are the last two of one shell, the three single crochets in the dip, and the first two of the next shell. Eight loops are on the hook.
A shell into the eye
On the row after that, work seven double crochets into the eye of each cluster: the loop at its top that closed it. Skip the three chains on each side of it, and work a single crochet into each of the three single crochets between one wheel and the next.
Change color every two rows
A cluster row and the shell row above it are worked in the same color, and together they make a row of whole wheels. Change color for the next two rows. Their wheels sit over the gaps between the wheels below.
The stitch pattern, row by row
- Multiple
- Chain a multiple of 10 plus 7 (27 or more).
- Starting chain
- The rows here are written for a chain of 27, which is 2 times the multiple of 10, plus 7.
- The ch 1 at the start of a row does not count as a stitch.
- The ch 3 at the start of a row counts as a dc.
- The eye of a cluster is the loop that closed it, at its top. A shell is worked into that one loop.
- A stitch worked into the eye passes over the ch-3 sp before it, and the ch-3 sp after it is skipped.
- Change yarn in the last yarn over of the last stitch of rows 1, 3 and 5. The yarn that rests waits at that edge and is carried up it.
- Foundation. With A, ch 27.
- Row 1. Sc in 2nd ch from hook, sc in next ch, [sk next 3 chs, 7 dc in next ch, sk next 3 chs, sc in next 3 chs] 2 times, sk next 3 chs, 4 dc in last ch (8 sc, 18 dc).
- Row 2. With B, ch 1, turn; sc in first 2 sts, [ch 3, dc7tog over next 7 sts, ch 3, sc in next 3 sts] 2 times, ch 3, dc4tog over last 4 sts (8 sc, 2 dc7tog, 1 dc4tog, 5 ch-3 sps).
- Row 3. Ch 3 (counts as dc), turn; 3 dc in same st, [sk next ch-3 sp, sc in next 3 sts, sk next ch-3 sp, 7 dc in eye of next dc7tog] 2 times, sk next ch-3 sp, sc in last 2 sts (8 sc, 18 dc).
- Row 4. With A, ch 3 (counts as dc), turn; dc3tog over next 3 sts, [ch 3, sc in next 3 sts, ch 3, dc7tog over next 7 sts] 2 times, ch 3, sc in next st, sc in top of turning ch (8 sc, 1 dc, 1 dc3tog, 2 dc7tog, 5 ch-3 sps).
- Row 5. Ch 1, turn; sc in first 2 sts, [sk next ch-3 sp, 7 dc in eye of next dc7tog, sk next ch-3 sp, sc in next 3 sts] 2 times, sk next ch-3 sp and next dc3tog, 4 dc in top of turning ch (8 sc, 18 dc).
Repeat rows 2 to 5 for the pattern.
Abbreviations in these rows
- ch
- chain stitch
- sc
- single crochet (UK double crochet)
- dc
- double crochet (UK treble)
- sk
- skip
- sp
- space
- st
- stitch
- yo
- yarn over
- dc7tog
- double crochet 7 together: [yo, insert hook in next st, yo, pull up a loop, yo, pull through 2 loops] 7 times (8 loops on hook), yo, pull through all 8 loops.
- dc4tog
- the same over 4 sts (5 loops on hook before the last pull).
- dc3tog
- the same over 3 sts (4 loops on hook before the last pull).
At a glance
- Also called
- Catherine's wheel stitch
- Used for
- blankets and afghans; anything that should show off two or more colors
- Abbreviation
- None of its own. The cluster is written dc7tog, or CL in patterns that define it.
- In UK terms
- Catherine wheel stitch, the same name: the cluster is a treble 7 together (tr7tog) and the shell is 7 trebles
- Loops on the hook
- 8 before the pull that closes a cluster of seven
- Multiple
- The chain is a multiple of 10 plus 7 (27 or more).
- Row repeat
- Rows 2 to 5.
- Colors
- Usually two, changed every two rows. More colors, or no color change, work too.
It helps to see the wheel before you make it. The seven legs of a cluster all end at the eye, and they spread out below it like the lower half of a fan. The seven double crochets of the shell all begin in that same eye and spread out above it. Fourteen spokes round one center make the wheel.
The eye is the place to get right. It is not a stitch top beside the cluster and it is not the chain space: it is the single loop at the very top of the cluster, where all its legs come together. If the shell goes anywhere else, the two halves do not line up and the wheel looks like two half circles that have slipped past each other.
The edges are made of half wheels. A row of shells ends with four double crochets, and the cluster row above it closes those four together. On the other rows the three chains that begin the row and a cluster of three stand for half a cluster, and the half shell of the next row goes into the top of those three chains.
Color does a lot of the work. With two rows of each color, the cluster and the shell of every wheel match, so the wheels show as whole circles. The same rows can be worked with more colors, or with no color change at all. Patterns also differ in the size of the wheel and in how many single crochets stand between wheels, which changes the multiple, so use the count your pattern gives.
When it goes wrong
- My wheels look like two half circles that do not meet.
- The shell was not worked into the eye. Find the loop that closed the cluster, at the point where its seven legs meet, and put all seven double crochets into that one loop.
- I run out of stitches before the end of a cluster row.
- Count the legs. Each full cluster uses seven stitches: two of a shell, the three single crochets, two of the next shell. The three single crochets between clusters go into the middle three stitches of a shell.
Left-handed
The pictures show the hook held in the right hand. For the left hand, read each picture as its mirror image.
Questions
- What is the multiple for Catherine's wheel stitch?
- For the rows on this page, a starting chain that is a multiple of 10 plus 7. The starting chain calculator works out the number for the width you want.
- How many colors does it need?
- It is usually worked in two, changed every two rows, so that each wheel is one color. More colors work the same way, and the rows are the same with no color change at all.
- Where do the seven double crochets of the shell go?
- All into the eye of the cluster below: the loop at its top that closed it.
- What does dc7tog mean?
- Double crochet 7 together: seven double crochets, each left unfinished with its last loop on the hook, closed with one pull through all eight loops.