Sleep like an Egyptian

[rbandrews]

So I was thinking last night, at about 2 AM, when I was freezing my ass off, that I had never noticed before just how much my blankets suck. They're always too hot when it's hot, or too cold when it's (rarely) cold. So today I went out to the store of departments, and I did walk among the people, and I return to you with a new comforter and sheets.

Comforters are fairly expensive, but about what I was expecting. I bought the last one when I was in SD (that first week, in fact), and I learned that a king-size one is better no matter how big your bed is, because then you have more than enough blanket no matter how many times you roll over. As long as I was there, I looked through other blanket options, and resisted buying a quilt, which I didn't even know was a thing people do, but I have no doubt that now that the quilt-seed has been planted I will end up back there inside a week, head held in shame, to render ninety dollars to my quilty overlords, who I can only assume are a sort of multinational conglomerate of sweet old ladies. What was I saying before?

Oh yeah: sheets! Apparently something called "thread count" (which can't be what it sounds like) is vital, since it was the most prominent specification listed on each item in the three aisles of sheets. Thread count seemed to not be inversely related to price, and 600 was the highest they had, so that's what I got. If there's one thing being a young geek teaches you, it's how to shop for things that you know you need but are not sure exactly why.

So one hundred and fourteen dollars later, this should be the best set of bedclothes physically attainable (at least without setting foot in the mall).

Edit: It's like laying on a giant sheet of microfiber. Which, you know, makes sense.

I am inordinately happy about this.

Comments

[uilos.livejournal.com]

Thread count is exactly what it sounds like - number of threads per inch. It's not precisely inversely related to price because poly-cotton is cheaper than cotton is cheaper than 'egyptian' cotton, which is apparently hand harvested by nubile young girls dressed in costumes out of 'The Mummy' and chewed into it's state of softness before being woven by sphinxes fed solely on milk and roses.

[rbandrews]

I thought it was number of threads total. I might believe the 600 ones, but 180 seems awfully low.

Either that, or my other guess was number of spools of thread.

[uilos.livejournal.com]

Nope, it's really 180. If you have the chance, get some 180 sheets and hold them up to a light - you can practically see through them.

[rbandrews]

Also, these are Egyptian cotton. I figured it was a kind of plant, like French doors aren't actually made in France.

Alsoalso, I love the mental image of that process.

[candle.livejournal.com]

Note that there are ways to lie about the thread count that doubles the count for marketing purposes. Which isn't to say that the really high thread count fabric isn't awful nice, but be aware of marketing bits.

[rbandrews]

My old sheets were the kind made out of t-shirt material, so even if it's only 300 count, that's about six times what I had last night.

Just out of curiosity, how do they lie?

[wyrdone.livejournal.com]

Threads in one direction plus threads in the other. They are only supposed to measure the number of threads on one axis.