
Today is an exciting day for me – I am publishing my first crochet pattern!!! I originally designed this in the 1980s, for a co-worker of my husband, and I have made dozens since. There are numerous shell stitch designs available, this is just one that I particularly like. I love the versatility of this design. It lends itself to working with yarn of almost any weight, as well as colour. Looks great striped too! I’ve used mostly #3 and #4 weight yarns for mine, acrylic, cotton and blends. I’ve used both solids and soft, pastel variegated colours. I would not recommend a dark variegated yarn, nor one that is highly textured as you may not see the shell design as clearly. Do a test swatch first to make sure the yarn you have chosen is giving the look you want.
For this blanket, I chose Bernat Baby Coordinates (from my stash, part of my stash busting journey). This yarn has a very pretty shimmering thread through it. It looks lovely, but may present a challenge for more beginner crocheters, as it is easy to catch and pull this thread. If you have not worked with similar yarn, try a small sample to get the feel of it. I also used my Clover Amour hook as I found it was the smoothest and snagged the least for me.
Here is a close-up to show the stitch in more detail.

And here is how much yarn I had left from the 3 balls when I was finished – about 2m !!! Wow!!!!! So now my stash is down another 3 balls – of course I still have many to go ;).

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Head over to my Free Pattern Page to download your pattern copy https://yoursinyarn.com/learn-2/free-patterns/