With that fix in, there was only one thing left to do: knit something real using this technique. I had too many other projects going on to commit to anything big, so I picked out a simple hat pattern and set to work. (This was my first colorwork project, and I'm not going to show you the inside of the hat. It's kind of a horror show, thought it did get better as I went along.)

Using the pattern generator is fairly easy. It tells you how many stitches of a color to knit. After doing this, you hit 'next', and it tells you how many of the next. Since it isn't following a pre-existing pattern, but randomly determining this on the fly, it makes for a kind of fun surprise to see what comes out. If you get lost, no problem! You can set the row and stitch counter manually, and it will start generating from that point. Since each stitch is randomly determined anyway, it doesn't matter!

I did have to have my laptop out while knitting, to keep generating the instructions, which was a bit cumbersome. I've been doing some Android smartwatch development recently, so maybe I'll create a version for that. But it wasn't too bad. It might actually be less distracting than most patterns, because you don't really have to keep track of where you are. Just follow the immediate instructions, and let the program do the tracking for you.

Most importantly, I'm very happy with the result! The pattern it generates is really interesting. I'd really like to see it done over a larger area. Play around with the pattern generator using 100x100 grids with the stitches shrunk down so you can see it all. I think a sweater made this way would look absolutely stunning. Not that I'll have the time to work on that for months now...

Let me know if you use the generator. Send pics! I'd love to see them.