Incoherent Scribblings

Color by Number

Today’s SBQ is a fun question suggested by Dianne and is:

If you have stitched for a while, can you usually pick out the DMC colors you need from memory when you go to your LNS? (For example, you know that 610 is a brown.)

I think that probably a lot of stitchers must have their DMC numbers/colors memorized because I have come across numerous blog posts that mention colors by their number. (”…because I ran out of 3371″) and I don’t even have to look into my box to know what color the blogger is talking about!
Personally, I am able to pick out a lot of colors by number because I have a knack for remembering combinations and I have been associating DMC numbers with their colors ever since I first started stitching. However, since I also use quite a lot of Anchor I can go one step further and tell you the color and suggested DMC equivalents for many Anchor numbers.

As far as shopping goes, when I buy floss it is usually because I have a specific project in mind so I tend to go to my LNS with a list of the colors I need instead of relying on my memory. I may know that 469, 470, 471, and 472 are all shades of green, but if I need to buy 10 skeins of floss there is always the chance that I might forget to pick up that 471.

Even so, sometimes my floss list is not accurate and then I do rely on my internal DMC catalog. For example, one time I accidentally turned a couple of numbers around on my list (I had written down 702 when the pattern actually called for 720) and when I picked up the color that I had written down I knew immediately that wasn’t the color I actually needed!