Here it is, the completed project:

As you know, lately I’ve been on a stash-busting kick and working on crocheted blankets to give away.  Truthfully, it’s because I got bored with knitting, and crochet gives me the satisfaction of finishing a project in just a few days.  You’ll notice that I’ve been sticking to flat pieces and not things like hats or baby sweaters, which would be just as useful and good to give away to charity.  It’s because I’m being lazy and I don’t want to think about increases and decreases and shaping and counting stitches.

For this particular little afghan, I used two orphan balls of sport weight yarn from the stash.  They were made by two different companies, but were similar in color, weight, and fiber content (100% acrylic).  I’d thrown away their labels a long time ago, which is actually a good thing, because the perfectionist part of me knew that I wouldn’t have enough yarn to make an adult-sized afghan and I was tempted to go on eBay and find more skeins– which would have defeated the original purpose of using up yarn from the stash.  So I gave myself a little talk and made my peace with the fact that the finished blanket would be a small one– 17.5″ by 27″, to be precise.

I had fun making this little afghan.  The pattern was a repeating shell stitch that I found in one of my crochet books.  I’m very into the shell stitch right now.  I’ve already started a third afghan, and yes, it is another shell stitch, but who knows.  I might decide to rip it out and go with pineapple lace, instead.