A couple of days back there was again a discussion on Ravelry about the random use of colours.
The popular projects by Lucy from Attic24 are always very colourful and each colour is chosen at random by grabbing in a bag without looking.

    
    
©Attic24 – ©dennismarquez – ©Nanita – ©tiggersjp

I can’t do this. I don’t know why, but this randomness makes me restless and then I hesitate, hesitate, hesitate before picking each colour. This results in even slower crocheting
Nope, random is nothing for me. This doesn’t mean though, that I don’t like the random blankets. On the contrary! I wish I could do it…
This is why I created my own way to be able to do random. It’s a method I call planned random. It’s a bit of a contradictio in terminis, but it describes exactly what I do: I plan my random colourschemes

How I do it? Using Excel and lots of patience.
Take for example my current project, the patchwork blanket. This blanket consists (or will consist) of lot’s of squares in lots of different colours attached without any visible logic.
Before I started this project, I opened Excel and created a list of all the colours I would be using. Each colour was assigned it’s own number.
Then I lined in a rectangle containing as many cells as I would need squares. At that time I had calculated that I would need 391 squares in 17 columns and 23 rows.
And then the real work began: I filled each cell with a number, corresponding to a certain colour. I kept my eye on the colours (or numbers) surrounding each cell, to make sure I didn’t put the same colours next to each other (too much).

Like I said, this requires some time and patience, but I think it’s definitely worth it. Now I can crochet squares unbothered by the randomness. A quick look on my scheme shows me which colour I need next. No stress, not hesitation with the planned random method

Cheers,
Charlotte