What a Plan!

I am suffering from inspiration.

Before I get to that, though, let me confirm. The UPS man did, indeed, arrive Friday. That man is my hero.













I found all three of these at Yarn Country.

Here is a family portrait. All of these are from Cascade's "Heathers" Collection. They are designed, I think, for those of us who might otherwise be easily distracted. Or who might fall asleep while slogging through the rows of garter and stockinette stitch. This way, instead of nodding off and impaling something with our Inox circulars, we can be kept alert by the subtle changes in the yarn. This saves on emergency room visits and reduces trauma to the children. I can just imagine John explaining, "Yeah. My mom had this accident with her knitting . . ."

A little more background here. (Bear with me. Inspiration will be striking momentarily.) I was really taken with Amber's post on the KAL on Sept. 14 about the Random Log Cabin. Her post sent me to January One for the full story. I was sitting here, trying to figure out a plan for my afghan (I like plans. I have been known to draw pictures and make diagrams on graph paper.) and it occurred to me, (this is where I became afflicted with inspiration): Random Miters! I have six colors to work with. There are six sides to a single dice. Surely it's kismet.

So, now I have a not-Plan. I randomly (really, close my eyes and turn the box around a bunch of times and everything) select the colors. First one out is number one and so on. Then I throw the die twice to select the colors for the squares. The first throw is the color I cast on with. The second throw is the color I use to complete the square. I keep track of the throws, and that determines the order I use to sew the squares together. To keep myself from cheating, I sew as I go. This would have the added advantage of not being confronted with hundreds of ends to weave in post-assembly. The only rule would be no solid squares. This could work.

Here's where things stand this morning. The colors and their assigned numbers are, #1, Mallard (the blue); #2, Charcoal (the grey); # 3, Provence (the red); #4, Kansas (the gold); #5, Shire (the green); #6, Pumpkin Spice, (the brown). The first five squares came up Mallard and Kansas, Provence and Charcoal, Pumpkin Spice and Shire, Mallard and Kansas, and Kansas and Charcoal.

Ta-da! Miter Number One as dictated by the Non-Plan.

Oh. I could get to like this.

Now I have to decide whether to sew the individual miters into blocks or strips. I'm leaning toward strips. That first set of four as a block would have two Mallard and Kansas miters adjacent to each other. That might be too random for me.