Rosemary for Remembrance

My next big project -- after daughter's afghan, which is now nearly ten years old -- may be a historic afghan pattern by Anne Orr.  It's Tunisian crochet in a worsted-weight yarn (modern equivalent to period "four-fold Germantown").   If I want an afghan I can wash as necessary, throw across couches, throw across laps, lather rinse repeat -- in short, one that will stand up to wear and time, what yarn do you recommend?  This is not a good time for Susie's Heirloom Hand-Dyed Handspun, because the finished product is 57" x 45", give or take gauge. Cheaper is better, but not so cheap as to be itchy or unpleasant to knit  I'm leaning acrylic for durability and washability, but I'm happy to hear what you'd use.   The primary colors are black, grey, and white, with a cross-stitch pattern in tapestry-weight yarn over the top.

Here's a color reproduction from the Dover reprint.   Here's a black-and-white picture of the original afghan, which Katharine Cornell worked on nightly in The Barretts of Wimpole Street.

 https://www.pussyhatproject.com/ is trying to get people to knit 1.17 million "pussyhats" for women attending the Women's March on Washington, D.C.   Whatever floats your boat.

However, in a move typical of modern knitting media, the pattern's featured yarn is Malabrigo Worsted, which sells for $11-12 bucks a 110-yard skein, enough to make one hat.  Admittedly, they say that you don't have to use Malabrigo, that any worsted would do, but the fact that whoever came up with this thought it was sensible to recommend a boutique yarn, rather than, say, Lion Brand Wool-Ease, a poly-wool blend that retails for $4 bucks and has 197 yards per skein, tells you a lot.

Anyway, if I knitted for charity (I'm a slow knitter and don't), I think I'd rather be doing cancer-patient hats, or something less symbolic and more necessary.

This is the best knitting book of all time. Seriously.

You'd think Knit Your Own Kama Sutra would be a one-joke wonder: naked dolls boinking. Ha ha, how droll, let's go read Oh Joy Sex Toy for some real laughs. Hypothetical straw-person you would be wrong. This is a fabulous knitting book about making 11 1/2 stockinette dolls, with the best accessories ever. The author has contemplated knitted dolls and the tropes of pornography, then created appropriate sets and costumes for each scenario. There's the farmer's daughter (dress, overalls, cowboy hat, milk pail, and chicken). There's the rustic lodge (winter coats, bearskin rugs, moose head). There's the office (pinstripe suit, skirt outfit, briefcase, and photocopier).

This is a knitted doll book that has a knitted photocopier. An awesomely detailed photocopier.

As far as the Kama Sutra goes, each scenario starts with two knitted dolls in a position from the Kama Sutra, with a page-long description of the position and how to achieve it. The bulk of the scenario, however, is knitting instructions.

As far as diversity goes, all couples are heterosexual, but there's multi-racial representation (signified by different-colored yarn). All body shapes are the same, because there are only two patterns, male and female. (If you want varying body shapes, I suggest Knit Your Own Royal Wedding, which has the short, stocky Queen.) The naked dolls are more-or-less people shaped, but lack pubic hair, nipples, and genitalia for the woman. These deficiencies, if you consider them such, are easily rectified with embroidery and a little ingenuity.

If you like this sort of thing, this is the sort of thing you like. It's a poor joke gift for a non-knitter, but the right sort of knitter will be very grateful.