When Life Gives You Thunderstorms...

Take pictures and design an afghan!

  What I'm supposed to be doing right now is working on the Nine Square Blanket for the World's Biggest Stocking. But what Mother Nature decided to do is take away the sunshine and replace it with some nice, dark thunderstorms. Lack of light has put a halt on taking the pictures of the final assembly. But, I ended up doing something really cool instead.

  I've been feeling pretty poorly lately, so the other half came home with a get-well present: A long-desired "Blue Mystique" Phalaenopsis orchid. This is a dye-injected bloom, so once this spike is done, the beautiful color will be lost forever. What a shame... If only I could capture it's beauty forever in some way! Well, I guess I could start by snapping some photos, right? With it sitting on the sill of the rain-covered window next to me, I forgot about the Nine Square for a bit and directed the camera elsewhere.

  And... Here comes Jenn from Roving Crafters to the rescue, and she doesn't even know it! A while back, she shared this really cool tip on her blog: You can take any picture you want, and load it into this really cool tool called "Chip It!" on the Sherwin-Williams website. And what you get is a really cool paint chip card to match your photo:

    Did I mention "really cool"? I'm in the beginning stages of designing myself a new afghan based on the photos. I may not be able to keep these beautiful blue blooms forever, but I sure can crochet a blanket that will always remind me of them. Now, I just have to figure out which color scheme I like best. The one problem is, I'm not so sure about the black. Don't get me wrong - black is actually my favorite color. But, there's no black in these blooms, so I'm not sure it properly reflects the flowers. Each picture I load comes up with the same shade of black for a coordinating color:

  But, here's something cool: Just click "edit colors" to see more suggestions for coordinating colors! This one kinda made me cringe. I don't like pink. Argue with me if you want to about how it's not actually pink; that one is more of a "coral" and the other is sort of a "dusty rose", but I call it too close to pink... Argument over anyways, because the green is out:

  This one tickled me because it came up with "Quixotic Plum":

  Quixotic: Adjective meaning idealistic and unrealistic. Synonyms: Visionary; impossible. Just like these flowers. Try as they might, hybridizers have never achieved a blue orchid. So, the visionary growers of these blooms figured out a way to create the impossible, even if only temporarily. Although "Quixotic Plum" is still a bit off color for the afghan I had in mind, it's a fitting name.

  Now, for the hard part: Find yarn to match the paint chips. Do you know you can take a sample of any color to a paint store, and they'll custom-blend paint to match? Why don't they have a yarn company that could do the same thing? That would be this designer's dream come true. Have you ever had a perfect vision in your head of how you want to make a project, only to find out that every color available is just a little off?

  The "Chip It!" tool is a really great way to design a project based on a picture. It's also a really great way to make me want to go buy paint and get to work on my office. You could probably use it for an array of crafts, like jewelry making and quilting. But if you can't find yarn or supplies to match, remember one thing: Don't blame me, it's all Jenn's fault I stole the idea from Roving Crafters...

Happy Crocheting!