A Tribute to Great Aunt Nora

My mom taught me to crochet when I was a tween and I've been "knotting string" (as my dad calls it) ever since. There is no end of organizations that will accept donated items, but I'm partial to baby items. 

When my great aunt Nora's estate was dispersed, my mom snagged her crochet stash for me. I've used up all the yarn long ago. Except for this one baby afghan she had started- 

I felt bad to tear apart her work, but I didn't have a pattern to continue it. And even if I had a pattern, she crocheted very tight stitches- it's hard to flawlessly match another crocheter's tension. Aside from that, peach & green are no longer the vogue color combination it was back in the 90s. So the project languished in my yarn tote until now. 

I decided it's not doing anyone any good in my closet so it's time to make a decision what to do with it. 

Tearing apart a deceased person's work is probably not sacrilegious in this case. So last week I shopped for other yarns to go with these 2 colors. 

Then I went to the library to browse through crochet pattern books on the off chance that I might stumble upon the pattern. I really liked the pattern; it's a good match for pompadour yarn. There I was, sitting on the floor, paging through a thick book called "500 Crochet Patterns" when... Eureka! I found it!!! The needle in the haystack. It's called a Solid Shell Stitch.  

Aunt Nora made a slight tweak to the pattern- placing the single crochets [between the shells] in the back loop only, which "pops" out the shell and makes the blanket completely reversible. I am in love with this pattern. And I was so excited that I could hardly wait to start reworking Great Aunt Nora's project. 

Here is what I have reworked so far... 

Today's forecast: 100% chance of crocheting. 

A peach baby blanket might appear here at some future date... stay tuned.