how to crochet | cathedral squares

Last year I was asked to design a scarf for The Art of Crochet magazine using the popular (and a bit obscure) cathedral square. You may have seen it around, the original design comes from an unknown Japanese source and you will usually find it (on the internet) looking something like this.

It's an unusual and completely genius stitch design because by itself the square looks a bit drab and uninteresting but if you use a different colour for your centre section and the same colour for your outer sections (white works best) then this humble square is transformed into something quite spectacular and visually stunning - just like stained glass windows.

For the purposes of my scarf design I figured out how the diagram worked, wrote the pattern out and added to it slightly to make it work for my preferred method of joining. You can find the pattern in The Art of Crochet Issue 113 - I think you can order back copies somewhere if you google it.

You can watch my video tutorial for the cathedral square here and see the written pattern notes below, hope you find them useful.

WRITTEN INSTRUCTIONS

With a colourful yarn of any weight (just use a corresponding hook size) ch6 and join with a ss to form loop.

Round 1. *ch4, 3tr, ch4, 1dc; repeat from * three more times.

Round 2. slip stitch twice into the beg. ch4 then work 1dc. *ch3, 3trtog, ch3, 1dc in first ch4 space, ch2, 1dc in second ch4 space; repeat from * around ending with ss into beg dc. Break off colour.

Round 3. join white (or a joining colour of your choice) into the top of any 3trtog and *ch4, 1tr into the centre of the square (the beginning ch6 loop), 2ch, 1tr into the centre of the square, ch4, 1dc into the top of the next 3trtog; repeat from * around ending with last dc in top of beg. 3trtog.

Round 4. slip stitch into first ch4 loop and work *2dc in 4ch loop, (4tr, 3ch, 4tr) in 2ch space, 2dc in next ch4 loop; repeat from * around ending with ss into first dc worked.

The original pattern ends after round 4, you can optionally add one more round as follows (I did this to make joining easier).

Round 5. ch1, 1dc in each stitch, working (2dc, 2ch, 2dc) into each corner space, join with a ss to beg. ch1 and break off white.

Happy Hooking YO!