Whew, I Think It's Gonna Be Okay

I twitch when colors don't match - you know, just because everything you're wearing is blue, doesn't mean it matches. There are different blues, different grays, pinks... you get my drift. However, I'm not really good a picking out colors. I know when it looks wrong, but I have a hard time getting it right. I have pink stripes on my living room wall. It was just supposed to be ever-so-subtle, and not pink, but I can't pick paint to save my life. Same with my office, it was supposed to be tan, it's SillyPutty pink. Why does all the paint I pick out turn pink when it's on the walls?

And colors look different in different lights, so that doesn't help. There are times during the day where my living room wall looks perfect, it just doesn't stay that way.

I few years ago we were thinking about replacing the furniture in the family room and my hubby came home and said he's found a great deal on a three-piece set of leather couches/recliners, but they were purple. He kept telling me to go and at least look at them, they were a "good" purple. I finally broke down and went with him to check them out, and they were a beautiful, deep, eggplant purple. But, that was under showroom lights. And there was no sample, pillow, or anything to take outside and look at it in "real" light. My family room is flooded with light most of the day... so I was a little worried. I mean we're talking a couch, loveseat, and recliner, all in purple leather - if it was delivered and put in my family room and turned out to be Barney purple in the light.... this was not going to be good.

We went for it. It turned out good. I say they're not purple, they're "aubergine," and we really like them. We even painted some of the wall accents the same color. Of course, I didn't pick out the paint, or the walls would be - pink.

Ok... I'm working away on my Wendy/Heather Essential stripe sweater last night, starting in on my main body color, trying to decide if I want just one more little dark stripe or not (the remainder of body from here on in is going to be solid, the lighter purple). It's raining away, and I'm all happy in front of the TV, listening to the rain, knitting away... but something's not right.

Now, granted, the lighting in the family room where I do most of my knitting is terrible at night (probably from bouncing off all that purple furniture). So, I keep taking my knitting progress over to the kitchen table to decide whether or not I'm gonna add another stripe, and just see now it's all coming together, and - it's - not. The colors look all wrong. How can that be? It all looked great together at the yarn store. The dark purple, with Heather's pretty variegated purples, with the new light purple.... they all worked together. I even got opinions - everyone thought they looked great together.

But tonight, in the gloomy rainy weather, in the bad lighting in the family room, and the stark lighting of the kitchen.... it looks wrong. The new purple looks more gray. Now, I'm trying it on in the downstairs bathroom.... even worse lighting - no natural light whatsoever, and I'm really getting worried. I just bought all this yarn, and knitted all these rows, and it's gonna be ugly. Now what? Just go back, buy more yarn, and make it all dark purple? Leave the stripes I've made so far? Ehhhh. Ugly. I'm really sad.

So, I wake up this morning and it's still raining (which I love, just not for true lighting purposes) - and I decide that now it's at least it's semi-light out, so I'll take my sweater back upstairs to the bathtub where the light seemed to be the best and most true, where it looked great yesterday, and see if it's gonna be okay. It is. It's great. The light purple looks purple, not gray, and it's back to what I remembered. Whew!

The sun is supposed to come out later this afternoon, so I'll take the sweater outside and see what it really looks like. Hopefully it all matches. I mean, who needs a sweater they can only wear in the tub when the lighting is right? Yeah, a wool tub sweater - that's practical.