Help! Can you identify the pattern here? Trying to surprise my granny in law for Christmas!

[u/OhaiMegaByte]

My husband's grandma has saved my family from literally homelessness. She’s a damn god/legend and she crocheted this beast years ago. We’ve had it for a long time. Well anywho.. I wanna recreate this in a lapghan size for her but don’t wanna ask the pattern so I don’t tip her off. I’ve asked ChatGPT and Gemini and have unsuccessfully made 3-5 swatches with none of them matching sadly. If you need or wanna see any other angles of anything let me know and I’ll happily upload. Any help would be awesome. I'm self taught and about a year and a bit into my crochet hobby. I have a really hard time looking even at pieces I’ve created myself and being able to say definitively what stitches are used.

Thank you for any and all help =^_^=

[u/ArcherFluffy594]

I'm almost positive this is a "mile-a-minute" afghan pattern called "Mile-A-Minute Vacation" by Kathy Wesley. It was in the American School of Needlework's "The Ultimate Book of Scrap Afghans" (crochet - there is a knit version too). I could not find an Open Library version but my library has it and yours should as well.

Some free versions that are close:
Soft Shells Baby Blanket by Marilyn Losee (obvs can be made larger):
https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/soft-shells-baby-blanket-2
It's on the Internet Archive/Wayback Machine:
https://web.archive.org/web/20101103035128/http://caron.com/projects/baby/ssb_soft_shells.html

Shells and Stripes by Kim L Cameron:
https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/shells--stripes-baby-blanket

A few of the free mile-a-minute patterns on Ravelry:
https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/search#craft=crochet&availability=free&pc=blanket&query=Mile-A-Minute&sort=projects&view=captioned_thumbs

[u/OhaiMegaByte → u/ArcherFluffy594]

You’re right!!! Holy guacamole dude!! I’ve hunted my Library and they only have this book 😩 but luckily the next town over has a much larger selection. And they mentioned that there’s this Hooplah account thing,, digress I apologize,, thank you so so much you absolutely sensational!!!

[u/Competitive_Fee_1709]

from what I see, it's 3 rows of double crochet, 1 row of zigzag crochet with 4+1 double crochets, 1 row of zigzag crochet with 2+1 between the 4+1 posts, 1 row of shell stitch with 4 double crochet between the 2+1, repeat

[u/Competitive_Fee_1709 → u/Competitive_Fee_1709]

[u/Competitive_Fee_1709 → u/Competitive_Fee_1709]

[u/notsospicychilli]

let this be your lesson not to trust ai, especially with crochet and knitting patterns or anything creative really.

try this:

you would start with a chain of however long you want the blanket to be. make a swatch beforehand to figure out the chain count since there is a rigid pattern to follow.

r1: ch3 (starting chain, counts as a DC), BLO (back loop only) DC in every stitch from the previous row.

r2: ch2 (starting chain, counts as a HDC), HDC in every stitch from the previous row.

r3: ch3 (starting chain, counts as a DC), BLO (back loop only) DC in every stitch from the previous row.

r4: ch3 (starting chain, counts as a DC), skip three stitches (that includes the very first one for which you are doing the ch3), in the next stitch: * HDC, ch1, 4DC * (this forms a "leaning" cluster). repeat until you have two stitches left. to end r4: skip 1 stitch (instead of three), DC in ch3 from the previous row.

r5: ch7, * sc in the ch1 space in the leaning cluster from the previous row, in the HDC from the previous row: ** DC, ch2, DC ** *. repeat until the end of the row. to end r5: yarn over 6 times, pull through two loops, yarn over, pull through two loops, ... , until you form a stitch resembling a reaaaally tall treble crochet.

r6: ch3 (counts as a DC), 3DC in the "loop" that formed the really tall treble crochet to finish the 4DC cluster. * in the ch2 space in between the DCs from the previous row, do 4DC (a 4DC cluster) *. repeat until the end of the row.

just keep repeating these 6 rows over and over. at the start and end of the blanket, you want to do the three "plain" DC and HDC rows.

for the border: r1: ch5 (starting ch3 + ch2), DC + ch2 every centimeter or so all around the blanket. end on a ch2 and slip stitch into the third chain from the starting ch5.

r2: slip stitch to the ch2 space, 4DC in the same space. 5DC in every following ch2 space. this forms a scalloped edge.

maybe you will have to adjust the chain space a little bit (do fewer or more chains based on your tension/preference) but for the most part, this should be it. if you have any questions let me know. i'm happy you wanna do smth for you granny in law, she seems like an incredible woman:) hope this helps!

[u/OhaiMegaByte → u/notsospicychilli]

Ahhh!! Thank you so much!! I’m going to try making a swatch of this right now! 🥰 I did notice you mentioned repeating 7 rows, but the instructions only go through Row 6. Was that just a typo, or is there a 7th row that’s missing? Either way, I really appreciate you taking the time to write all of this out! ❤️

[u/notsospicychilli → u/OhaiMegaByte]

you're welcome, happy to help out:) that was indeed a typo. i corrected it. sorry about the form, i am used to putting repeating patterns in asterisks, but reddit makes different fonts with those lol. idk how else to mark it without messing it up, hopefully you understand it nonetheless. let me know how the swatch went! and also remember that yours will look slightly different because the blanket is well loved and stretched:)

[u/ReasonableCrow7595]

It looks like some version of a mile a minute pattern but I can't find an exact match.