The Pairing Game - more fun in the Indie Designers Gift-a-long

Have you heard of the pairing game?

What, I hear you ask, is the pairing game? Sounds like some sleazy sort of matchmaking?!

Well, its matchmaking of the yarn-loving kind, as described in the first post of the competition thread by EchoChiKnits aka Lindsay Lewchuck:-

Your mission, should you choose to accept is to match a yarn (or prize) from the prize list here with a pattern from one of our 177 indie designers and tell us why it is a good fit.
This thread will be the only thread receiving the random select trivia questions for the next two weeks (‘til Nov. 30th). It is a chatter thread, because when it comes to yarn who can keep silent, but note, only posts with the following 3 criteria will be eligible for the random select trivia question and subsequent prize.
The post must:

1. Link a yarn (or prize) from the prize list here
2. Link a pattern from one of our 177 designers
3. Tell us why it is a great pairing One more thing, to make it truly your own, you may not use a pattern where the specified yarn by the designer is the yarn you selected from the list!

The prizes are pattern downloads, and no, you don't win the pattern and yarn you suggested, although that would be uber-cool, but any of the donated pattern prizes would be fun to win.

Designers (like me) aren't eligible to enter but I'm still enjoying reading all the entries and chatting. And right at the start it solved a problem that I've had for some time.

A yarn problem, you say? Well yes, do you ever have yarns that just won't tell you what they want to be?

Some time ago I bought three skeins of Malabrigo Silky Merino in Ravelry Red, only to discover that it is not quite the usual bright red of Raverly Red in sock or Rios or the other pure wools, because of the silk. Its a bit more pinky rather than true red. And I've been confused about what to do with it ever since.

And there it was, in Post 4, the greatest suggestion from another raveler, to pair the two skeins of Ravelry Red Malabrigo Silky Merino donated by Triona Murphy  with the pattern Inganess by Lucy Hague. Now Inganess has been in my queue before, on more than one occasion, but as I try to keep my queue short and only for the things that I will do soon, it had dropped off (I use my favourites for things I might do one day).

I can't wait to cast on an pretty red Inganess now, but I am going to stick to my Afloat at least until the end of the striped section before I let myself.

Have you found a serendipitous pairing of stash yarn and pattern?