Soft Shells Stitch Crochet Baby Blanket

After finding out the joyous news that my Auntie is expecting her first baby in October, I decided to attempt my first ever blanket in order to create a gift that was both unique and straight from the heart! I'm not particularly good at maintaining a constant tension when crocheting and knitting which is why I tend to stick to 3D projects such as amigurumi and soft toys where the tension doesn't matter - as long as it's tight! So I felt that a baby blanket wouldn't be too challenging due to their small size. Not knowing whether I was expecting a girl or boy baby cousin I opted for a colour scheme of pastel yellow, blue and green - the yellow and blue yarns are Yarnfair Baby DK bought from Wilkinson's and the green is King Cole Dollymix "Nil" colourway bought from Abakhan's, both in Manchester City Centre.

I wanted to find a relatively easy pattern which offered enough texture to be exciting but remain soft. This soft shells baby blanket by Brenda Bourg on Ravelry was perfect, as unlike a bobble stitch or similar textured stitches, the pattern was the same on both sides rather than one side being textured and the other side simply the inverse. I was worried at first that it would be difficult having never used a shell stitch but the pattern was very easy and each shell was simply *1sc, 2dc* in each stitch. It built up quickly and I was very happy with the finished blanket, as was my Auntie!

The only real addition I made to the pattern was the variation in the size (I could have made it bigger but ran out of yarn, and time!) and the decision to replace the suggested border with a scalloped edge, the pattern of which I found in a book and was simply *slip stitch, skip 2st, 5dc in next ch, skip 2st* all the way around.

Adding the scalloped edging...

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