Winner #5

Rusty M., you're Winner #5! Congratulations.

And did I mention that the giveaway yarns are lovelies like Elsebeth Lavold's Silky Cashmere and Elann Silken Kydd and Laceweight Baby Merino and laceweight alpaca just for starters?

Why is it an "afghan"?

I have launched into the Quick & Easy Afghan from the January 2009 Creative Knitting magazine. It's a marvelous pattern for mindless knitting: I can carry on a conversation without making any mistakes which is quite a feat for me. Also it looks glorious and impresses the heck out of the non-knitters I'm conversing with.

The yarn (pictured above): Cascade Yarns Baby Alpaca Chunky. Ahhhhhhhh, what a soft, sensual, lovely yarn it is to work with in a glorious heathered turquoise blue (#562-Monterey Bay). I'm in heaven every time I pick up the project.

As I knitted away, it suddenly struck me that I had no idea why a simple, knitted blanket carried the exotic label "afghan". So, being a writer and therefore a master at procrastination-by-research, I looked it up. The truth? No one really knows. However, afghan as a synonym for a blanket was first found in writing in 1833 in England. The speculation is that it refers to the beautiful geometric patterns seen in the textiles from Afghanistan which were also found in the knitted blankets. The etymologists figure the word was shortened from the descriptive "Afghanistan blanket" to just "afghan" at some point before the written record. (BTW, the word blanket comes from the French word blanc, which means white. Just in case you were curious.)

Has anybody heard any other theories on why a blanket by any other name is an afghan? Or do you know interesting origins of other knitting words? Word games are such fun!

Baby Cashmere and a sneak peek CLOSED

CLOSED Which came first: the Baby Cashmere or the sneak peek? I'm not sure there's an answer to that question so let's start with the yarny goodness. How about six skeins (yes, really and truly six; I counted) (used both hands so it's gotta be more than five, right?) of gorgeous soft yummy Elann Baby Cashmere.
There's not all that much cashmere in it, to be honest: 60% baby alpaca, 30% merino wool, and 10% cashmere but it's so soft and so pretty that it's irresistible. We're talking US3 needles, 100 m - 109 y in each skein. It's #3317, Morning Mist, and you're going to love it.

Send me an email here with MIST in the subject header and I'll pick the winner on Sunday night. (I didn't use the on-line random number generator last night. The site must have been down so I hollered into the living room to Goldisox: "Pick a number between X and XXX" and he yelled back, "Seventy-three!" which is how Leslie B came to be our winner.)


Willa, friend and web designer and jewelry designer extraordinaire, worked her magic on my website and the first chapter of LACED WITH MAGIC is posted and ready. Let me know what you think.