Random .... to be or not to be ?

♥

So, here's the thing ... 

whilst I am eternally grateful to my Mum and Dad for

 giving me 'the neat and tidy gene' and enabling me to be super organised

 and super tidy wherever I go, when it comes to crochet it seems, 

quite unexpectedly, that this poses a bit of a problem.

Now it's nothing too earth shatteringly awful and life can continue 

without it being too much of an issue ...... 

but, oh, how I would love to be able to do random !

But I can't.

I simply cannot make myself sit down and do a completely unplanned, 

spontaneous  and what's the word .... organic, piece of crochet.

It's literally quite impossible for me to put two colours together that might clash a bit 

or that don't maybe sit right together. 

It's almost bringing me out in a cold sweat just thinking about it. 

And then, just imagine if someone made me sit down with a whole basket of odds and ends , 

in all the colours of the rainbow ,

 and asked me to just go with the flow .... definitely in a cold sweat now !

So why bother I hear you cry - well, because as I have traveled on my crochet 

journey I have discovered that whilst I may not actually be able to do it,

 I have become rather partial to a bit of a random patterned blanket or two.

I have even attempted to have a go with this blanket that I made a couple of years ago,

but if you look closely you'll see that I literally got not further than a quarter

 of the way through before I had reverted to type and a lovely,

 neat and tidy pattern happened.

Don't get me wrong, I still love this blanket very much but since finishing it, 

always at the back of my mind there's been that little voice

 saying 'go on, go on, do random, do random. '

I've even had all the yarn ready and waiting in a bag in my cupboard, 

just tucked away quietly waiting for that moment.

And then, one day, one very normal every day kind of day ...... 

JOY OH JOY , 

the lovely Heather over at Pink Milk very quietly posted a post all about 

this most miraculous of inventions called, wait for it ....

THE RANDOM STRIPE GENERATOR !!!!

My heart is beating faster just thinking about it.

LOOK !!!! 

It actually works out the random for you ! 

You just put in a few details like your colour choices,

 number of rows etc and off it goes, again and again and again !

 Endless randomness, 

it even allows you to choose which random you like the most !

Bloomin' fantastic !

Heather - I owe you big time .

Well, before you could say 'what colour next' I had hot footed it upstairs,

 got the hidden bag of yarn out from the back of the cupboard, printed off 

'The Golden Chart of Randomness'

and the blanket had been started.

And, oh, oh, oh, big happy sigh of relief ....

I can do it !

I can TOTALLY do it.

My Pootling bag is packed and wherever I go, it comes too.

And, boy .... is it addictive !

I can't stop.

I love it.

Hook, line and sinker - I AM IN.

So, here I am, one very happy and satisfied crocheter sitting in a lovely tidy house doing random crochet to my hearts content - who says you can't have the best of both worlds :-) 

♥

Probably just worth stating at this point that the irony hasn't been lost on me that I have still had to stick my charts very neatly and tidily in a brand new note book, that all my colours are neatly noted down next to the stripes, in very neat handwriting and that all of my yarns are also very neatly recorded on a little tag that is tied very neatly in to my very neat and tidy notebook.  

Hey - ho, not quite fully off-piste just yet but one step at a time eh !

♥

                 ( Further post to follow with pattern details ....  

            but for now just click here to be transported to 

                                The Wonderful World of Randomness ....                   

 Random Stripe Generator )