Hello Yellow

The Pantone company has announced that the color of the year is Mimosa. They describe it as "a warm, engaging yellow. In a time of economic uncertainty and political change, optimism is paramount and no other color expresses hope and reassurance more than yellow." I'll buy that, though it is hard to envision Martha Stewart embracing such a jazzy color.

I love this color and use it in my quilts a lot. That great orange-y yellow always adds a little punch. I think some folks call it "cheddar".

I am fascinated with the field of "color forecasting" which is how this color of the year business all comes about. There is a group of experts who meet regularly and analyze trends to predict what colors will be popular in given years and seasons. Fashion, car colors, furniture designers all rely on those predictions to create the newest colors for their products. It has to do with lots of factors, including the economy, youth trends, what's in the news and cultural events, but mostly observation of what people are buying and wearing. I have my own theory about color popularity, which is that we quickly grow tired of seeing the same colors and our eyes crave something quite opposite of what has been really big for a few years. I'm old enough to remember when olive green and harvest gold was the BIG color trend. It was also when I got married, so all my wedding gifts seemed to be a variation on this theme. We all got so tired of this combo that it was years and years before yellow greens, especially earthy, olive-y greens, were acceptable again. Now after years of forest green and teal and such, yellow greens seem fresh all over again. I think I'd be good at color forecasting. How do you get that job?

My granddaughter loves to say yellow. She pronounces it "lello" and I think she actually thinks that is what her crayons are called and doesn't really quite get the concept of color, but I am working at teaching her.

I used to have a lemony yellow shirt that I loved. I wore it until it was shaggy, when I finally reluctantly got rid of it. I've wanted to replace it ever since. Last week I was at the Eddie Bauer Outlet in Lincoln City and saw this great yellow knit shirt that was 70% off. I was standing at the display, holding the shirt and deep in thought—actually trying to do the math to figure out what 70% off $39.99 would be—when a wild-haired woman, also browsing gave me a firm shake of the head, looked intently into my eyes and said, "that color does not look good on you!" Well, gee. I nearly put it right back on the rack, then came to my senses and snatched it up before I could change my mind. I like it

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