Can anyone help me adapt this crochet pattern please?

[TheFurryMenace]

I am making this blanket. I believe the stitch itself is called sideways shell stitch, but Im not sure.

The pattern is to make a rather large cot blanket and I would like to adapt it for a pram blanket, but Im not sure what the multiple would be. The pattern says to start with a chain of 184. The pattern itself is:
1st row: 3tr in fourth ch from hook, miss 3ch, (1ss,3ch 3tr/dc) in next ch: rep from to end, turn.
2nd row (pattern row) 5ch, 3tr/dc into st at base of ch, 1ss into top of next 3ch-sp from previous row, 3ch, 3tr/dc ins ame 3ch-sp: rep from to end of row, 1ss into top of t-ch from prevous row, turn.

If I want to make it less wide, what sets of muliples do I need for the chain and how many added to turn etc?

I'd be really grateful for some help.

I think it's this one isn't it? The repeat is 5+2, very bad form for a pattern not to include that information.

If you can link to your pattern, even better.

Hi Tribot, thank you for such a speedy response. I have tried to attach the pattern cover, it is a Debbie Bliss pattern in Rialto 4 ply. I dont know if the one you have linked to is wavy or closed enough, the one I have looks like quite a tightly woven blanket with soft kind of chevrons. Do you think it is the same?
media.woolwarehouse.co.uk/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/265x177/17f82f742ffe127f42dca9de82fb58b1/d/b/db_078_0.jpg

Ah-ha, that was enough to find it on Ravelry (this is like Facebook for yarn crafters, plus an index of tens of thousands of patterns).

Unfortunately no-one has done a project using this pattern, but looking at the photos in close-up I can see the stitch does look rather different.

So looking at the written instructions, you basically do 4 trebles in one stitch (the chain of 3 counts as the first treble), then miss three, then do the shell stitch in the next stitch, suggesting the pattern is 4+1, which would work out as 180 + 1 (plus the three chains for turning).

In the second row, you create a stitch at the beginning (chain 5 and then work into the first chain), slip stitch into the chain 3 space from the row below (skipping over the shell stitch you finished with in that row), then work another shell in the chain 3 space, then back to slip stitch. So there's no real stitch count to worry about from this point on.

I would therefore have a go at a narrow test piece, say 44 + 1 + 3 (47) and see how you get on.

Dear Tribot, thank you so much, you make it sound so easy! I will do a test run as you suggest and report back.

I would make the chain a few inches longer than you want, make the next row as wide as you want the blanket to be and then undo the unused chains.

Thank you Soup, but I am not quite sure what you mean?

So let's say you do 80 chains. You work in pattern along until you've used up maybe 75 chains and decide that's wide enough. No probs, just turn and carry on. At the end, you can undo that leftover bit of chain from the first row and just sew the yarn in.

Yes, what she said :o

I did think it sounded confusing as I typed it.

Ah! I see now, thanks both, I never knew that!