This is not just an afghan from Afghans by the Alphabet, it’s the cover afghan. So you can compare my result to the professional product.

I handed my friend Sheila all my afghan books and told her to pick out what she wanted. She picked this one. I told her she could have different colors, but she wanted the ones in the picture. I told her there was a lot of yarn in this particular pattern and she offered to pay for it. That wasn’t what I meant, especially since the yarn shown was Red Heart Super Saver so it cost practically nothing. What I meant was a) it would be heavy and b) it would be a lot of work.

Even though she’d said she wanted the yarn in the picture I spent a lot of time looking for an alternative. I’ve worked with Painted Desert before and it didn’t look like the picture to me. I thought they must have gotten a more vivid dye lot or they were wrong about what they’d used. I was afraid if I made it as specified, Sheila would be disappointed. Finally, not having come up with a color combination I liked better, I did a swatch. It looked just like the picture. Guess I should have trusted the book to begin with. The reason the variegated comes out more vivid than it seems on the skein is that the black is constantly running behind it, deepening the tones. That’s why it uses so much yarn too. There are essentially two rows for every row you can see.

What’s not clear from the photo, and which surprised me, is that it’s a flat afghan. There’s no texture at all. The variegated grid isn’t over the black squares; it’s an integral part of the fabric. The effect is striking.

I really love how this came out, although it seemed to take forever and I was glad to have it done. The only downside is that it’s one of those afghans that doesn’t reverse at all. The back is a completely different afghan – very modern art and moody, almost African. Kind of cool in it’s own way.