The Cathedral Window Crochet-along

Update: Annie's Attic

has released this
pattern on its own, so
the days of hunting for
an affordable copy of
the publication are
gone. Hurray!
Annie's Attic - Cathedral
Rose Window Afghan
Also, Crochet Today
magazine (November
2007 issue) has
released a similar, less
intricate pattern, created
completely in single
crochet:
Stained Glass Afghan
In 1994, Annie's Attic
released a pattern book
called Award-Winning
Afghans. The cover project is
a spectacular afghan based
on the Rose Window of Notre
Dame Cathedral in Paris,
created by Julene Watson.
In July 2005, Crochetville
members diamond and Chatty
started a crochet-along for
this amazing pattern.
A crochet-along happens
when a group of folks decide
to tackle a new project as a
group. If you're lucky enough
to have a local group to work
with, you may have done
these in person. But for those
of us who don't, Crochetville
hosts crochet-alongs. They're
especially wonderful when
you're working on a
challenging or time-consuming
pattern, like this afghan.
The rose windows of Notre Dame de Paris
The north rose window - Earthlore Gothic's closeup photograph
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The south rose window
Britannica online article - points out that unlike the majority of churches in Europe, the glass in the three great rose
windows of Notre Dame are the original glass installed some time before 1260AD. During WWII they were removed
from the building and stored for safekeeping.
Wikipedia article
Notre Dame de Paris - the cathedral's website (in its English translation) - most impressive if you use Internet
Explorer to visit the site, although I'm having trouble viewing the photographs in its gallery.
And if you're really smitten with this window, you can buy a 10 1/2" replica at Amazon. Or at least you could if it was
still available. Sorry for getting your hopes up.
Forums and Support Groups
Cathedral Crochet-a-Long thread at Crochetville - where it all started...
CathedralCAL group at Yahoo
List of Ingredients
The original pattern calls for worsted weight yarn in these quantities: 33 ounces light varigated, 11 ounces dark
varigated, 38 ounces black, and 3 ounces white. Assuming that Red Heart's yards per ounce are relatively
consistent, at 53 yards per ounce, this works out to:
Black White
Light
Varigated
Dark
Varigated
Length required
(yards)
2014 160 1749 583
Worsted weight
(ounces)
38 3 33 11
Lace weight
(grams)
200 16 175 60
Lace weight
(ounces)
7+ 1/2 6+ 2+
Fingering weight
(ounces)
19 1.5 17 5.5
Fingering weight
(grams)
480 38 416 140
I used 10 yards per gram, or 285 yards per ounce as the conversion factor for the laceweight; 105 yards per ounce
(4-and-a-bit yards per gram) for fingering weight.
Julene Watson left this note as guidance for picking current yarns:
You can still get the principle colors I used. They are made by Red Heart. Get the Black and White in
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the Super Saver size, but not the "sport weight." But, be SURE you get the "Wedgewoods" in the 3 oz.
"Classic" size and worsted weight. Even though it *does* come in the slightly-cheaper super saver
size, the colors are NOT the same, and you will be more dissappointed with the results of using the
super saver size than you will be pleased by the few dollars you will save. It's the other "variegated"
yarn for the smaller, purplish window panes that always proves problematic. I've had my yarn of
choice discontinued on me 4 times now! At the moment, if I were making the afghan today, I think I
would use one strand each of Moda Dea "Gleam" yarn, tweeded, in Amethyst (#3552), Blue Topaz
(#3517) and Rubelite (3903). I think this would give the closest result to the original, with the added
"bonus" of a bit of sparkle as the sun shines through the "window." I know that's a bit on the pricey
side, so for those watching their pocketbooks, I would consider using either Moda Dea "Swirl" yarn
#3945 - Carnival OR Moda Dea "Metro" yarn #9446 - Sante Fe as possible substitutes, depending on
which one the individual felt looked the best with the Red Heart yarns. Good luck, and let me know
how they turn out!
(reported by Drew the Crochet Dude on page 48 of the CathedralCAL thread on Crochetville, 23 Mar 2006).
Various and sundry corrections, changes, etc
I've organized these in the order in which they occur in the pattern. I've tried to include the original references in the
Crochetville thread. Please let me know if I've missed a suggestion, or if I haven't given credit where it was due!
If you're interested in how folks made decisions about the kind of yarn to use, hook sizes, color schemes, or general
"design issues," check the Crochetville thread. It's too much to try to summarize. The original pattern uses worsted
weight yarn in one strand for the majority of the work, but uses a small amount of double-stranding as well as
popcorn stitches to create three dimensional effects. Some of us use those. Some of us prefer a flatter final product.
And don't get me started on the gauge.
Cheryl's notes provide a lot of insight into how she modified the pattern to do a more single dimensional version.
Section 1
Post #243 from Bellisima includes this suggestion for Rounds 4 and 5 of the octagon:
Also, on rounds 4-5 of the octagon, I think it should say
(Sl st, ch4, dc) in first ch, skip next st, *dc in each st around to next ch-1 sp, (dc, ch1, dc) in
next ch-1 sp; skip next dc; repeat from *
(the instructions in red are my suggestions). The only way I could make the stitch count correct for
each round was to skip the dc directly after the dc, ch1, dc corner. (I hope that made sense...lol)
For some reason, folks didn't react strongly to this suggestion, but I used it and it did make my counts come out
correctly.
Everyone agrees that Round 3 of the pentagons in the First Section contains a mistake:
The pattern reads Ch 3, 2 dc in next, *dc in next 4, etc.... It just wasn't working for me has I was
missing the 5th ch-1 spacing so I did: Ch 3, (dc,ch1, dc)in next space then continued with the rest of
the row as stated. Did anyone else notice this?
[As far as I can tell, this was first noted by diamond in post #139 of the Crochetville thread, and confirmed by many
subsequent members, including myself.]
My note on this section: " The central octagon ends up being 64 stitches around - that's 8 stitches per side. I think of
the black edging as "1 sc in the ch1-space, 6 sc across to the next corner, 1 sc in the ch1-space" across each of the
sides.
This matters because each of the pentagons should *also* end up with 8 stitches on each side. Round 3 of the
pentagons leaves you with 30 stitches, or 6 per side. Then you do the same "1 sc in the ch1-space, 6 sc across to
the next corner, 1 sc in the ch1-space" trick to make the edging, and sewing them all together comes down to "just"
lining up the stitches.
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Diamond's post #139 offers this comment on the black edging around the pentagons:
Also, in regards to everyone's pentagons curving. My first two were curving and I knew something
wasn't right. So on my 3rd pentagon when it came to attaching the black and sc around here's how I
got my pentagons to be 5-sided and laying flat without curving. At each ch1 space where you put 2 sc
in, I then sc into that first ch after it. This stitch is usually overlapped by the 2 sc but I found it makes
a big difference in how the pentagon ends up looking. I then frogged the black on the first 2
pentagons and redid them as the other 6 and they are now flat and perfect pentagons.
The pattern calls for the black edging to be made with a single strand, using the H hook, unlike the body of the
pentagons themselves which are double-stranded and made using the G hook.
That 3-D effect worries a lot of folks when they're working on Section 1. If you follow the pattern as written,
correcting the pattern for the pentagons, and then sew things together, you'll find that the afghan does not lay flat.
That seems to be intentional. If you do not want to create that 3-D effect, follow Cheryl's notes below, or make your
own modifications to create the effect you want.
I followed rddugan's recommendation in Post #428:
Did anyone try crocheting around the first section with black rather than making and sewing all those
triangles? I don't like to sew and tried this by following the pattern for the triangles backwards -
crocheting right on to section one. I slip stitched in the extra stitch and did 2 sc instead of 2 dc on tips
of the hexagons. It looks fine to me. Maybe my pentagons aren't as pointy as they should be. I'll have
to post a picture to see what you think.
Here's how I did it. The "meat" of the triangles occurs in the second row, as it's written in the pattern: "sl st in first 3
ch, sc in next 2 ch, hdc in next 2 ch, dc in next 4 ch, hdc in next 2 ch, sc in next 2 ch, sl st in last 3 ch." This is the
row that gets stitched to the outer edge of the pentagons. Once I had my pentagons sewn on, I attached my black
yarn so that I could start following the pattern directions at the tip of the pentagon. Then the pattern instructions
become:
Starting at the tip of one of the pentagons, sl st in first three stitches of edging; sc in next 2 stitches;
hdc in next 2 stitches; dc in next 4 stitches; hdc in next 2 stitches; sc in next 2 stitches; 3 sl st to get
to next pentagon tip. Repeat 7 times, join back with sl st in original tip of pentagon.
To verify that you're doing it right, you should have made the first 2 double crochets "in front of" the join between the
two pentagons, and the second 2 double crochets after the join.
Once you've finished this round, do another round of single crochet all the way around. You should have 18 single
crochets in every "segment" between the tip of one pentagon and the next.
Notes and finished afghans
Getting the rounds to lie flat
In the hopes that others will benefit from my frogging 4 rows, here's how to get the rounds flat.
There are two issues that can create or prevent ruffling when you're crocheting in a circle. I've never
seen it explained quite this way, so I'm hoping it will be helpful to other folks.
Most of the time when you're crocheting in a circle, your goal is to end up with something flat. Problems can show up
in two different ways: your outermost row may curl up, or it may ruffle and otherwise refuse to lie flat. Assuming
you're not trying to create that kind of effect for artistic reasons, here's how to fix the problem.
If the edge curls up, it means that your outermost row isn't "big enough" to fit all the way around the circle you're
making. You can fix this by changing to a slightly larger gauge crochet hook, or by adding increase stitches a little
more frequently than you have been.
If the edge ruffles, it means that your outmost row is "too big" to fit on the circle you're making. Drop down a hook
size or two. If that doesn't work, reduce the number of increase stitches you're making.
I prefer to start by changing hook sizes because that won't affect the number of stitches. Also because I know I
generally crochet larger than gauge, so this usually fixes things for me.
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However I am becoming a big fan of making lovely floppy ruffles on my circles by deliberately increasing too quickly
-- just not on this afghan!
I have not managed to create a comprehensive list of works in progress -- the thread's at over 600 posts as of late
August 2006. But here are some of the finished ones, highly drool-worthy and motivational.
Cheryl's posted a summary of her notes on her blog. Very helpful! And the pictures are lovely.
Crochet Dude's Cathedral Window Afghan - Aside from inspiring us all with his gorgeous creation, Drew's
contributions to the CAL include lots and lots of moral support, vital bits of advice and previous experience, and info
from Julene the pattern designer about picking yarns.
Darlene's inspirational photo album
Shaylen's Cathedral in Reds (in progress)
It's My Page, I Can Post My Own Progress Pictures!
As much as I adore old churches (like St. Bartholomew the Great) and their fabulous artwork, I've had colors and
shapes from my grandparents' yard in my head for the last month or so. Their home is in a lightly forested
neighborhood in South Bend, Indiana. In the springtime, the grass is emerald green, and the yard is covered with
crocuses and violets. Daffodils surround the house, where once upon a time my grandmother managed to grow
pussywillows, too.
So my cathedral window is a cathedral of trees. I'm using dark brown for the tree trunks, instead of black; yellow
and sky blue; greens; and purples and violets.
I want to be
able to use
my
completed
window as
a
lightweight
blanket or a
really
whomping
huge
circular
shawl, so
I'm using
fingerweight
yarn -- the
violet/blue
and the
green
medley in
the octagon
are from
Cherry Tree
Hill, the
others are
from E-Bay
seller Jojo
Online.

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The
central
octagon
and a few
pentagons
(22 Aug
2006).
You can
see in this
picture
that the
geometric
shapes
are not
very
sharply
defined at
this stage
in the
production.

Section
1
finished,
and I
finally
got the
first
round of
Section
Two
right!

The Cathedral Window Crochet-along http://www.precision-guesswork.com/cathedral-cal.html
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The
popcorn
round
took
much
longer
than
expected,
but I love
how it
looks.

Another
attempt to
show the
colors
more
accurately.
Hmm, it
needs
more
purple.
The Cathedral Window Crochet-along http://www.precision-guesswork.com/cathedral-cal.html
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As the piece
grows, it's getting
harder to
photograph! This is
after completing
Section 3, Round 8.

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I'm giving
up on
accurately
capturing
the
colors,
even with
the
daylight
lamp.
Hopefully
sunlight
will be
more true
to color.
Third
section,
Round 20.

Showing
the outer
section
alongside
the large
heptagons.
My peaks
and valleys
are a little
funky, but
hopefully
that will
sort itself
out when
it's
blocked.


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A closeup
showing
the final
round of
popcorn,
with the
royal blue
and
lavender
rows
preceding
and
"Violets in
the
Woods"
after.

Where am I now? I'm on the last solid round of Section 3, getting ready to do the shaping for
the small heptagons. I've also been making heptagons and other shapes to replace the dark
border in the original pattern - leaves and flowers and other organic looking motifs.
Last modified: tbird 10 December 2007
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