Way Outside My Comfort Zone

I know I'm all about Knitalong these days, and I promise to post the details on the pillow this week, (I have to pick a new section of the story, Diane did not approve the cliffhanger I left you all with) but for now, I have a new assignment.

Through a series of unanticipated decisions -- and it's not my story, but the chapter that included me unfolded along the lines of, "Okay. I guess we'll send a gift later, oh hey, honey, in that case, could you make something?" -- I've got the chance to make a baby blanket. No deadline, because the baby was premature and because a blanket is onesizefitzall.

I planned to make the Pinwheel Blanket. Cute. Different. Well within my abilities. I could use stash yarn. I showed it to Himself. He thought it was okay, but then Himself paged farther in.

He found the Blessingway Blanket. This is the blanket he really, really wants us to give. The Blessingway Blanket means cables and assembly. The assembly part I can handle; I don't do cables. I have figured out that I can opt for simpler cables for the center three diagonals. I expect to swatch a lot, and I'm telling myself that making the blanket will up my skill set considerably. What intimidates me out of all reason are the Celtic knots in the corners.

Still, I found the yarn at the first yarn store I looked. I mean the actual, what the pattern calls for, Blue Sky Hand-spun Organic Cotton yarn. Admittedly, there weren't enough skeins of the same dye lot to make the blanket one color. I can never leave a good thing alone, though, so I don't see this as a problem. By expanding into Blue Sky's Dyed Cotton line, I can make the different sections in different colors - the green for the middle cable, the natural for the two sections flanking that strip and the blue for the two corners.

Now, anybody know a good "learn how to cable in one fast, easy, lesson" cable book?