Color Problems
Is my taste changing at this late stage of my life?
I have always been a decisive person. When I owned a yarn shop, the sales reps loved me. They could come in at 9 am, show me the new offerings from three or four different yarn lines, and walk out with an order before the store opened at 10. I know what I like, and I don’t dither over colors.
In my wardrobe, a consistent color palette makes getting dressed easy. My pants are black, gray, navy, or a deep burgundy. Tops are in a range of blues, teals, reds, and pinks, with lots of white. When I’m knitting for myself, my color choices usually fall neatly into line with my existing wardrobe.
But lately, my eye has been flirting with the yellow/orange/brown side of the color wheel. When I look at yarn colors online, I’m drawn to rust and pumpkin, chocolate and caramel, and rich golden yellows.
In March, I set out to replace my 15-year-old charcoal gray winter coat. I’m smaller now than I was when I bought it, and though the coat is still in good condition, it’s just too big. In hopes of taking advantage of end-of-season sales, I browsed some of my favorite websites for a wool coat. When I found one I liked (at a great price), it was available in two colors: black and camel. What should have been an easy decision was not. I dithered. The black coat said practical, goes with everything, won’t show stains. But the camel-colored coat called me. It whispered quiet luxury, classic elegance, Katherine Hepburn.
I am not Katherine Hepburn. I bought the black coat, and I love it.
Shocking thought: If this coat also lasts 15 years, I won’t be shopping for a new one until I’m 81!
What’s going on here? Why are the colors of autumn suddenly so seductive? Am I being influenced by the “stealth wealth” look that has received so much press over the past couple of years? Can I scratch this itch without rethinking (or, God forbid, replacing) my entire wardrobe?
Fortunately, as a knitter, I can dip my toe into any color I please.
Most of my knitting is not clothing I intend to wear. I’m either swatching new yarns or designing for a yarn company or other publisher. If I’m swatching for a yarn review, I can use any color that will show up well in photos. I can use the leftovers to make a hat to be donated. If I’m making a sweater for me, I can easily sneak accents of rust and gold tones into a multicolored sweater that works with my core wardrobe. I can spend time enjoying all those warm, toasty colors without upending my entire look.
Have your color preferences ever shifted? Do you tend to work within a limited palette, or does your closet (and your yarn stash) contain all the colors of the rainbow? I’d love to hear about it in the comments.
I’ve spent the past 10 days happily visiting with an old friend, a retired spy master and world-class art restorer. I just finished reading A Death in Cornwall by Daniel Silva, the 24th book in Silva’s series starring Gabriel Allon.
I wrote last summer about my love of serial fiction. Silva’s Gabriel Allon series is one of the best. There is always a suspenseful, well-conceived plot, many returning characters, and enough new characters in each book to keep things fresh. Each novel is meticulously researched and tackles real-world situations. A Death in Cornwall is driven by the (mostly legal) ways the world’s wealthiest people evade taxes using anonymous shell companies and holding assets in offshore tax havens.
Yes, there are always at least a few killings involved, but Silva never lingers over the bloody scenes, and he never glamourizes the violence. As Gabriel tells a young police detective in A Death in Cornwall, “Killing people ruined my life, Timothy. I would hate myself if it ruined yours.”
I had a hard time putting this book down. As I neared the climax, I abandoned my current knitting project (deadline be damned!)1 to curl up in my favorite chair and I stayed up past my bedtime to finish the book.
I have read each of the Gabriel Allon novels in paperback and keep them neatly gathered on one of my bookshelves. I have a fantasy of re-reading them all in order, one after the other. But that hasn’t happened yet—there are too many new books I’m eager to read! Perhaps I’ll find time for that delight after I retire.2
I did try listening to one of the novels in audiobook form a few years back. It was read by Edouardo Ballerini, whom I usually adore. But his characterization of Gabriel Allon was so far from the voice I hear in my head that I was not able to finish it. This is one case where I will stick to reading on paper.
The 25th book in the series, An Inside Job, is scheduled to be released in July. But I’ll wait until it comes out in paperback. The hardcover wouldn’t look right on the shelf.
Things that caught my eye…
I enjoyed this short film from BBC exploring what our clothes say about us. Thanks to my mother for sending the link my way.
If you’re going to be in San Francisco this summer, I’m jealous. It’s shaping up to be a fabulous season for art in the city by the bay. Two California artists whose work I admire will be the subject of retrospective exhibitions:
San Francisco’s Legion of Honor Museum is presenting a retrospective of the work of painter Wayne Thiebaud. His joyful use of color always makes me happy. I enjoyed this video about how art history influenced Thiebaud’s work.
Head across town to the Museum of Modern Art and enjoy the Ruth Asawa retrospective. I love the way her sculptural wire work plays with line, space, and light. Many of her looped wire sculptures resemble knitting at first glance.
Finally, at the de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park, there is a rare opportunity to see Henri Matisse’s 1947 artist book Jazz unbound and arrayed on the gallery walls. Created using Matisse’s paper cutouts, these exuberant images were made when the artist was ill and no longer able to paint. They are a beautiful reminder that creativity will find any opportunity for expression.
As always, I’m grateful for your attention and support. Your likes and comments are the nudge that keep me writing each week. Don’t forget to continue the conversation—tell me about the colors with which you have a long-term relationship. And tell me about your color dalliances.
Not really—I work hard to never miss a deadline. This sweater isn’t due until August 1.
3 years and 9 months to go, with any luck.
The joy of being a knitter: we can knit with colors we might never wear but still like to look at.
When I was quite young, my favorite color was blue and I hated pink (I guess I was a very early feminist because pink was always associated with delicate femininity and that was so not me). But in my 40s, I started to like pink … a lot. So much so I got my hair dyed pink, first just at the ends and then eventually throughout much of my hair. But, generally, over my whole life, I’ve gravitated toward black and various shades of gray. Not so much white because I’m a slob and I hate how the necklines and underarms stain. Not too long ago I had a particular attraction to orange; not sure why. I do have several light colored tops, mainly for summer wear. I’m doing an experiment right now to clean up my wardrobe. I saw a suggestion to turn all the hangers in one’s closet backwards and then return them forwards whenever an item is worn. After one year, anything item with the hanger still turned backward should be packed up and sent to Goodwill. I still have a few months to go (got to get through the summer), but, after several months, I can already see a lot of hangers still backwards 😳
I just finished a new-to-me series by Anthony Horowitz. It’s his Hawthorne and Horowitz series (about 5 books currently). I listened to the audios and really found it hard to not keep listening into the wee hours of the morning. The series is written as if it’s a true crime series with Horowitz “playing” himself. Hawthorne is a private investigator who talks Horowitz into following him around on his cases and then writing books about the cases. Hawthorne needs the money. I found it very engaging and really enjoyed the narrator Rory Kinnear.
I feel like I am moving away from browns and earthy olives. Where to I don’t know yet!