I did work with the pattern as printed. This is not one of the easiest patterns, because you do have to make sure you keep on track. It's not a pattern you can do without concentrating! I have knitted a couple of these and at first found it very difficult. I even ripped some of it out at the start and began again when I knitted the first one and the shells were not lining up at the start of the second set of pattern rows. However, once you get going and you have completed two or three sets of the pattern rows (the pattern seems to get in your head!) you can "see" where you are in the pattern and it gets easier. When there was a mistake, and there were some, I was able to adjust to get back on track again and you couldn't see the mistake at all. I would not recommend this pattern to a beginner. There is another blanket in the same pattern book (a pink one) with a lacy ripple fan/feather pattern which is absolutely beautiful and much easier to work with. It has great eye appeal when finished and friends have often chosen it for me to knit for them over the sea shell one (much to my relief, I might add!) However I felt a great sense of accomplishment when I finished this baby sea shell blanket. The recipients were both special babies and deserved a special blanket. Lion Brand Pound of love is ideal for these blankets as there is just the right amount of yarn in one skein.

The baby blanket comes from a Leisure Arts book called "our best knit baby afghans" and contains 33 different designs. www.leisurearts.com I like this pattern book. The patterns are not too complicated. It also has a design called Little Boy Blue, which is the one I knitted for my other slide show - with the diamond patterns. This particular one in this slide show is called Sleepytime Seashells and has an 8 line pattern and uses size 10 needles.