I found this gorgeous granny-square afghan at a pop-up flea market in a school yard near where my son and daughter-in-law live in Brooklyn.

I love the way the creator used navy blue yarn as a background for the amazing assortment of colors in the individual granny squares–including neon orange and pink. The afghan is similar to the traditional style that rims each multicolored square with black, like the one I made based on one my grandmother gave me, but the navy blue and neon give it an interesting twist.

The different shades of navy blue suggest that the creator was frugally using up navy yarn left from other projects–or she ran out midway through and couldn’t match the dye lot.

And I love the elaborate border that carries out the neon theme.

The craftsmanship in this afghan is really marvelous, and the yarn gauge is quite fine so the work must have been slow-going.

The afghan is huge–huge enough to cover a twin bed. Based on my experience making my own granny-square afghan, it represents years of labor.

I suspect that most of the vintage items offered at flea-market stalls come from estate sales. When I go out on my estate-sale jaunts, I often see afghans for sale. Usually, since the point of an estate sale is to clear out a house so it can be sold, they can be had for just a few dollars. I’ve rescued a few myself and like to think the creators would be happy that someone else appreciates their work, even if I didn’t pay much for it.

I did, however, pay quite a bit for this flea-market afghan. In fact I had to bargain quite vigorously to bring the asking price down to where I didn’t feel too extravagant. But the flea-market booth’s proprietor deserves credit–and a good mark-up–for recognizing and rescuing this gem.