Random Ideas

My brain has been thinking about knitting a lot. (How about the rest of me? What's it thinking about? How weird am I?)

Back on track...I finally finished the Garden Path Socks. WOOT. Photo to come. They ended up slightly tight, which I find funny, since they were huge on the size 0 needles, so I switched to 00s. They are very pretty, in a subdued (meaning it won't come across in photos) way. Certainly the semi-solid yarn was a good choice for the complicated pattern.

Speaking of semi-solid yarn and complicated patterns, I just ordered some of each from here:

http://www.fritzl.etsy.com

On a whim I checked out an ad on the Sock Yarn Sales email list (such an enabling thing!) and really liked this woman's colorways. She has quite a few that have more color than a semi-solid, but not so much that you couldn't knit a lace pattern with it. And even her stripey yarns are subtle blends of similar colors. She is very good with green in all its shadings, and both yarns I got had green in them. One sages and one what could be called "pistachio." Since they are all one-of-a-kind, of course what I got is probably long gone, though there were two of the sage-y colorway. She also had a pattern for socks that was a textured lace, with two variants in one sock. I am a sucker for those, so I got it. Now, of course, it isn't on the site (odd, it was just a PDF--she should have told the etsy software there were ten of them or something). I promise to post photos when I can. You should all salute me for having the restraint to not buy the "pansy" colorway, knowing I have more than one yarn with those colors in them. Wow, restraint!

So, why is there a Wheel of Fortune on this post, you wonder? It's because I had a random idea. I have a really hard time determining what yarn to use for the next "bus sock" (i.e., easy sock to work on in public). I have so much stash. This time I cheated sorta and am using the most recent yarn I bought, but that feels unfair to the many lovelies in waiting. I wished I could just swirl them around and choose one blindfolded. Then I thought of the Wheel of Fortune (it's a roulette wheel, see the ball going around and around?). And I remembered my very old friend, the random number generator (it's how I used to choose the Employee of the Month when I worked for a mathematics software company, though no one believed me when my boss and then my boyfriend were the first two "winners). I think I will assign each ball o' yarn a number, then when I need to choose, randomly generate a number between 1 and x (x=number o' balls o' yarn). I will knit with that, even if it is brown (I do think I have knit enough brown socks now)!

At first I envisioned myself making little pieces of paper with numbers on them and sticking those in each ball or skein. That sounded tedious. But wait! There's Ravelry! And all my yarn is conveniently categorized in my stash! I can just write a number in the comments about each stashed sock yarn. And if I use a number, it can be used for the next yarn I buy (thereby not making the stash seem even bigger than it is, ha ha). I don't think I will index the acrylic sock yarn that got donated to me, but I'll do all the rest. The only time I envision not using a yarn I choose would be if one is slated for a particular "fancy" sock project in the near future.

Doesn't this sound like a fun plan? It's like gambling, only with yarn, so I am not afraid of it. After all, I love ALL my sock yarn!

OK, I am off to label items in the stash.