My oldest son’s great grandmother crocheted a blanket for him while I was pregnant. The entire thing is just one stitch and the border is a simple 5 rows of single crochet. It’s gloriously simple and oh so beautiful. When I finally learned to crochet, I knew I’d want to make a blanket just like it. I didn’t have the pattern and great Grandma said she crocheted it from memory–it was her go to stitch pattern and she would make several a year for any new babies who entered her life.

I STILL wanted to make it, though. So, I just sat with it for a few minutes and counted and came up with the stitch pattern. I crocheted a giant baby blanket for my cousin’s first born back in 2007 using it (you can see it stuffed in a basket of handmade baby goodies, here), but for some reason or another, I didn’t write up the pattern to share.

Yesterday, I got an email asking about it (you can see it in the background of my one-hour neckwarmer pattern) and so I decided to pull out the baby blanket and write up a proper stitch pattern. If you’re familiar with a more traditional name for it, please do let me know. It’s like a shell stitch pattern, but it’s not quite the same, hence the “offset.” Anyway, I hope you enjoy it!

Ch any multiple of 4
Row 1: [2 DC, ch 1, DC] in 4th Ch from hook, *skip 3 Ch, [3 DC, ch 1, DC] in next Ch; Rep from * across chain. Ch 3, turn.
Row 2: [2 DC, ch 1, DC] in the first ch-1 space, [3 DC, ch 1, DC] in all ch-1 spaces, except the last. 3 DC in last ch-1 space, Ch 1, DC into top of beginning ch-3 of previous row. Ch 3, turn.
Repeat Row 2 until scarf if as long as you would like it to be.

Using some worsted (aran) weight yarn and a 5.5mm hook, make a scarf or neckwarmer by chaining 28 or 32. Make a baby blanket by chaining something substantially larger, like 160. It’s surprisingly fast, once you get going.

Like I said above, if you know what this stitch is called or have any other reference for it, let me know!

Click here to see my other Offset Shell blankets!
It’s an addictive stitch pattern!