Needlework

Weekend Site-Seeing

What’s your color IQ? Take this test and find out.

Okay, when I first went to the page, I looked at it and thought it would take forever and almost skipped it. I’m glad I didn’t. It really doesn’t take that long.

noodle1.jpgA couple of noodles (needlework doodles) that I keep at my desk for times when writing doesn’t involve typing, i.e., I am thinking, or exercising my other noodle. They will become tags and go away somewhere.

My color IQ is 3. Apparently, I have trouble discerning some greens. A perfect score (you discern colors perfectly) is 0 and a really bad score (can you say “color blind”?) is 1409. My high school band teacher was color blind. That’s hard for me to imagine. I get such pleasure from color, I think I need to more consciously appreciate my ability to see it.

How effective is this test? Beats me. Let’s hear what your scores are; if they’re all 3s maybe we should be skeptical.

Thanks to Gail Maki Wilson, illustrator extraordinaire, for the link.

Categories: Needlework

14 replies »

  1. Oooo. Interesting! Have Scott do it. Did you note what colors give you the most trouble?

    Now I want to learn more about color perception.

  2. I scored an 8. I have to admit that Jessica and Joshua were helping a bit. They were intrigued by the test and I sent them the link. I’ll let you know how they do. Despite your protests to the contrary, I struggle with detail. It seems I have good skill at absorbing minutiae when I’m not trying (such as the spelling of that word). But when I attempt to focus and process the detail–aye, there’s the rub. I struggle there. Had I better focus, I think I could have scored a bit higher.

    About the band teacher being color blind…I’m guessing that he and other color-blind folks enjoy color as much as we do. Don’t forget that they aren’t blind to all color, only certain ones (such as red/green). They see a variety of colors, too. To add to that, they aren’t missing those colors…they see the colors they’ve seen since birth, so therefore aren’t *missing* any.

    There is a tiny, tiny segment of the population that only sees in black and white (they’re missing rods or cones, I forget which ones). I watched a special with Oliver Sacks where he interviewed and interacted with this community. It was fascinating. (I love Oliver Sacks.) They suffer in the daytime with bright light, but at night their pupils dilate in a huge way, and their vision is exceptionally keen.

  3. I got a 0!
    Shelly makes a good point. (It’s the cones that perceive color, by the way.) We can’t really miss what we’ve never had.

  4. Re: noodles. First, I really like them. I recognize chain stitch, back stitch and lazy daisy(at least, that what I learned it as). Is the fill half crosses with a quarter stitch in a different color?

  5. Wow. Fascinating, isn’t it?

    Actually, Anna, I wonder if there may be some differences between computer rendering and, say, paint chips. I believe that if you gave me this test with neon lights, I would do much worse. I have trouble with bright lights–red, in particular.

    People who only see in black and white…interesting! Rumor has it some animals see only in black and white.

  6. Becca, that’s a faggot stitch. I’m bad with stitch names, but I’m pretty sure about that one. It’s a very simple pulled thread stitch.

    Start in the bottom left and backstitch stair steps up to the right. When you get to the edge, loop the working thread around the border stitch on the back to keep the angle of the upward stitch correct, then turn around and stair-step back down in the opposite direction.

    Your stitches on the back will be angled and parallel; your stitches on front will be stair steps, but they’ll slant because you’re pulling them somewhat tight.

    It’s easy enough I’m betting you can do it just from that description.

    The fibers are all Kreinik. Gold size 4, red size 8. It’s the sparkle that makes the gold look different colors. I have a lot of trouble photographing/scanning metallics.

  7. Okay, my score was a 34 – and I thought I was doing fine. I’m only commenting at all – instead of hiding my apparent color issues – so you low score people will feel confident that you’ve really done well.

  8. Interesting how concentrating on the colors creates a strain for some. I didn’t find that, but you’re not alone, Shannon.