Catherine Wheel and Spokes

I first saw the Catherine Wheel pattern on mikeyssmail site on YouTube a few years ago.  This guy has some great instructional videos posted, even if some of the crochet terms he uses drives me nuts !  Mikey has instructional videos posted for two variations of the Catherine Wheel: the first is made of double crochets, and the second is made of treble crochets (Mikey calls this a Jumbo Catherine Wheel).

My version is the Jumbo Catherine Wheel, but I usually put a twist on almost every pattern I make. This version has two variations.  Only 1/3 of the rows follow the pattern.  The other 2/3 of the rows are "airy" versions, what I call "spokes".  I was concerned that the finished piece would be very dense, so the 'airy' wheels were created to combat that.

The other variation is that each row takes a 90 degree turn about half way through.  I came up with the turns to break up the monotony of row after row after row of the wheels.  With this technique the variations are literally endless.

I used four colors of Red Heart Super Saver that I frogged from afghans I made a few years ago.  I used a G/6 aluminum needle.  The finished piece is about 4' x 6', but I'm considering putting a border of single crochets to "frame" it.