Yarn & Pattern for a Wedding Gift Afghan - Suggestions?

[jamadian75]

Hello all! I'm undertaking a pretty big and important project soon. I want to make an afghan/throw for my best friend's wedding gift.
I'm looking for something that the new husband and wifey can snuggle under during movie night at home

I'm open to a pattern with some complexity (like cables) and would prefer something continuous (although I know that portable pieces would be good, I'm not crazy about large scale seaming). I have seen some nice patterns in the Leisure Arts books, so would love to hear if you've tried any.

As for yarn, since it's my best friend, and a wedding gift, I have more spending leeway (just this once per DH of course) but I'm concerned about something that is "too" luxurious and therefore a pain to care for. If this is something that's thrown across the couch after each use, or folded in the linen closet until next time, then I also want it to be fairly easy to wash.

I'm in South Florida, so something light would be good, but the wedding is in November and it cools down quite a bit here from October to February, so a superwash wool or a wool blend would be okay.

LOVE to hear from you brilliant KH'ers on this! Thanks in advance!

[rebecca]

I'm going to have to say Encore...it's the best for afghans, as far as I know. I've also made them with Woolease, and they have held up very well. Then, there's KnitPicks' new washable wool, Swish, although, I've not yet tried it (I have a skein coming so I can play/knit/wash/dry/stretch/pull/stomp, etc to see how it holds up).
All in all....encore

[Jan in CA]

Here's a bunch of afghans including one that is actually called "wedding afghan."

[jamadian75]

Jan & Becka THANK YOU!!

These are great leads!