Zeno's Afghan: What's it got in its pocketses?

[lydy]

Zeno's Afghan! It is done! And it turned out extremely well. Here's what it looks like:



The center of each square, done in an ombre called "Peacock Feather" is actually double-thickness. This means that this afghan is dense. Very warm. It is about four feet by six feet, so there's plenty of afghan to cover toeses and noses. I think the colors are spectacular. I love the central, four-pointed stars. Let's take a closer look:



One of the other cool things about those central squares is that they are built as little pockets that you then sew shut. So, of course, how could I resist? I hid things in the pockets. Two things, to be precise. And you all should guess what they are. The pockets themselves are just about four inches square. The things hidden were chosen because they would go through the laundry without disintegrating, damaging the yarn, or adding unwanted color to the rest of the laundry. One is a mineral, one is a vegetable. One is fannishly related, one is general book related. I did not find an Easter vermin in time, so that's not one of the things. Let's play twenty questions! Person with the best guesses gets dibs on the afghan if they want it. (You can totally win and decline the afghan.) Best will be either the most accurate or the most entertaining, depending on my mood.

Oh, and the guess "string or nothing" is hereby disallowed on the grounds that the pockets are made of string and most of them are full of nothing, and besides, I claim the right to tell that joke. It's my afghan.

P.S. You are totally allowed more than one guess. Iterated guesses are encouraged.

Comments

[boxofdelights]

That is lovely.

[lydy.livejournal.com]

Oh, thank you. I think it's the prettiest afghan I've made, yet.

[redbird]

Twenty questions, eh?

1) Is the mineral a crystal?

[lydy.livejournal.com]

No, not a crystal.

Lovely!

[eileenlufkin.livejournal.com]

That looks gorgeous! My guesses are a 1973 penny and a whale carved out of Ivory.

[lydy.livejournal.com]

The '73 penny is thematically close, but the fannish item is the vegetable. And I wish I had a whale carved out of ivory, but if I did, I probably wouldn't hide it away for all time. Also, I'm pretty sure that ivory is animal, not vegetable.

[bibliofile.livejournal.com]

That's a beautiul thing! Is it pieced or created all across at once?

My imagination isn't up to snuff on the guessing: all I can think of is a rock and a hard place. Or maybe a cat toy. Looking forward to others' guesses and the Big Reveal!

[bibliofile.livejournal.com]

Oh geez, one of them is a ring, isn't it. I hope it's the vegetable one, because I've busted more than one carnelian ring while wearing it (never while covered in yarn, though, which should help a lot).

[lydy.livejournal.com]

A ring would have been amusing, but yes, they break. And a stone ring, like hematite or carnelian, would break and then saw its way through the yarn, so I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have put one in even if I'd thought of it. But I didn't think of it.

[marsgov.livejournal.com]

Mineral: the Imperial Orb ("borrowed" from the House of Pheonix)
Vegtable: a polished splinter of the True Cross

[lydy.livejournal.com]

As always, I like the way your mind works.

For generous definitions of work.

[fgherman.livejournal.com]

The afghan turned out spectacular!

The something vegetable is probably wooden, perhaps A Round Tuit.

The something mineral, I am guessing, is a piece of amethyst.

[lydy.livejournal.com]

The vegetable is not wood.

The mineral is not a stone of any sort. Nor a metal, come to think of it. I characterize it as a mineral, but other people might argue that it is a vegetable or an animal.

[boxofdelights]

Is the mineral a bone? Or a tooth? But those would both dry out and shatter eventually. Unless you shellacked them?

[mplsfish.livejournal.com]

The heart of a star.

A mandrake harvested on a clear night with no moon.

[lydy.livejournal.com]

I did almost put a glow-in-the-dark star in one of the pockets, but David wouldn't let me. He thought that the star would be sad, shut up on the dark like that. So I didn't. He actually gave me something much better. Indeed, he had to sacrifice the shirt off his back in order to do so.

[marsgov.livejournal.com]

I characterize polyester as... hm.... dinosaur-dervied... former animal or plant... "anamolous."

[marsgov.livejournal.com]

I shoud probably also mention at this point that I'm not quite certain how well platsique tolerates dry cleaning.

[carbonel]

Is it a zeppelin from a Minicon/Minn-stf shirt?

[lydy.livejournal.com]

Wow. Yes, yes it is. In particular, it is the embroidered bit from a Minicon 34 long sleeved shirt. Here it is, going into it's pocket:

[naomikritzer]

Cool!