This stitch pattern was found in one of my Japanese stitchionary crochet book collection. I later found out that it has a name, the Catherine’s Wheel Stitch. Tutorial videos can also be found on YouTube. This stitch fit well with the Caron Cotton Cakes yarn.

The pattern for the Basset Hound Dog Pattern can be found on YouTube free and here for the written pattern. Thanks Kerri Brown for the YouTube tutorial.

I used I different yarn weight than the instructor. So, I had to make some adjustments in order for the dog to look proportionally the same. I used a medium 4 weight yarn with a 3.5 mm size hook. The length of the face marking and the ears came out longer in proportional to the face. I eliminated some rows, 3 rows for the face marking and 1 row for the ears.

Final Dimensions of the blanket: W-41 in x L-43 in

The orange color yarn row, I call it a “chain stabilized row”. Whenever I make shell stitch patterns on the first row (on a chain row), large holes are created at the shells. I see some instructors using their fingers to hold the stitch from being pulled while making the shell. However, due to having disabled fingers, I’m unable to do the same.

Another hobby of mine is machine knitting. In machine knitting, sometime, we start with a cast on rag. Its purpose is different from the Stabilized Chain Row but it gave me the idea to start similarly in order to limit large holes when crocheting a starting row (row 1) of shell clusters.

So, I single crochet the row of chain on the unused part of the chains. In other words, I tend to crochet row 1 on the back loop of the chain, leaving the V-shape on the opposite side as an edge. This V-shape loops of the chain is the ones that I used to crochet the stabilized row. I used a similar weight yarn in a different color yarn to make this row.

This row helps to stabilize the stitch from getting too much pulling while crocheting a shell. Plus, it helps me to count the stitches easier since the next stitch was not closed up from the pulling.

Once row 1 or a permanent stitch pattern is satisfied on the project, I frog out this row which leave a tidy looking edge.