Color of the Year: Orchid vs Thistle

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Brooklyn Tweed Thistle: Color of the Year

Pantone has announced their Color of the Year for 2014 — they’re calling it (gag alert!) Radiant Orchid. It’s a tricky color, let’s be honest. I’m a big believer in the right shade of lilac-ish purple (it looks nice on me, as the Color Me Beautiful lady told me all those years ago) but it’s so easy for it to be cloying. The first thing that popped into my mind when I saw the announcement, though, was Brooklyn Tweed‘s “Thistle,” which is perfect. The tweed gives it a little bit of necessary roughness, messes it up just enough. (When you think about it, the names are funny — if I’m at the flower stand, I will reach right past the orchids and grab the thistle any day of the week.) It’s been under consideration for my Trillium cardigan, if I ever get to it. Charcoal, ivory or Thistle, and most likely the latter. It’ll look marvelous with my camo pants.

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23 thoughts on “Color of the Year: Orchid vs Thistle”

  1. thistle is one of my faves. I have a scarf WIP in Shetland yarn in that colour (aptly named Thistle) and it looks great.
    Look forward to seeing your Trillium :)

  2. I’m lusting after that little cardi too, Karen … maybe in Tent, to replace a similarly shaped (store-bought) army green cardi that I wore to death. I can’t imagine I will get to it before 2014, though…sigh…

    And I know what you’re saying about color names. I can only imagine the meetings around marketing tables that involve coming up with them. Probably fun … and funny…

    • It is a super girly color. I applaud anyone feminine enough to team it up with a frilly design and pull it off. For me, it needs to be tempered by minimal design and paired with tougher stuff.

  4. It also happens to be the color for the last installment of Clara Parkes’ Great White Bale. Shipment came the other day and it is beautiful.

    • I’m jealous of everyone who was in on the yarn-getting level of that. I haven’t managed to keep up with the blog, but hope to sit and read through it someday.

  6. I agree with you on the “gag.” But I love a sprightly purple all the same. Rowan felted tweed has a purple I really like. 151 I think.

  7. Yes, indeed, a tricky color. And Thistle of BT pulls it off perfectly for the reasons you gave. I love (and can wear) the shade that gets into plumy purple. If it goes to into the brighter, pinkier range… ugh! I don’t even want to knit it for someone else.

    • Yup. “Plume” is more me. Haveta say, there isn’t a color in Brooklyn Tweed line that I don’t like. I may not wear them all but I’d love knitting them all!

  8. I look horrible in purple, so said the Color Me Purple lady! Remember that? Brooklyn Tweed yarns…so lush!

  9. That Thistle yarn is gorgeous. And I completely agree with how you would pair it. For me, though, it’s got to be a darker plum. If I see that colour I always snap it up, despite the fact that I already have too many things in that colour. (Radiant Orchid? Yuck!)

    • Dark plum/eggplant is one of the few colors in my stash — I have like 5 different yarns in that color! And MJO, the Trillium sample in that BT Plume is really beautiful. But it’s almost too dark to be able to see the textured detail in the pattern (it’s more evident in the photos than it was when I saw the sweater in person), which is what got me looking at the lighter purples.

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