Sunny Shells Blanket

When I find I Love this Yarn on clearance, I buy it, especially when it's only $1.43 a skein instead of $3.99.  This particular time, there were probably 30 skeins of the same color, so I bought them all.  The only problem was that I didn't know what exactly I would do with them.  I figured I'd end up making blankets out of them, but what stitch, and should it be paired with something else?  Variegated yarn is tricky to combine with other yarn.

Anyway, last year I made the Sunshine Blanket with this yarn for a buddy of mine who was getting married.  When I was done I still had about 15 skeins left, about the right amount for a blanket since variegated skeins are smaller than solid skeins.  So, I was bored, needed a project to keep my hands busy, and this yarn had been sitting around for a year and it needed to go away, so I started this project.  I initially tried to match the pink in the yarn to put solid colored stripes into it, but I couldn't find the right color, so I just kept it simple.  I decided to use stitch 28 because it is awesome for variegated yarn, and practically mindless.

I had no person or purpose in mind while I was making it, but I took it with me to various functions where I knew I was going to be seated for a while and could pursue a mindless project.  When I crochet in public, I routinely get comments from people about what I'm working on.  People are curious what exactly I'm making, because sometimes it's entirely not obvious.

Anyway, a lady at Bible study basically gushed over how much she loved the colors in this yarn.  That got me thinking: she really loved the blanket, and I knew she crocheted, but she never kept anything for herself.  Also, she loved the colors, and I kinda didn't, and I knew she would appreciate it: so about halfway through it became her blanket in my head.

Chain 187, then work stitch 28 until work reaches desired length.  Add this border to finish.
Round 1: sc around, 3 sc in each corner
Round 2: dc around, 5 dc in each corner
Round 3: sc around, 3 sc in each corner
Round 4: sc around, 3 sc in each corner
Round 5: dc around, 5 dc in each corner

I made this with I Love this Yarn in Perpetual Sunshine and a J hook.