Note to my readers: This post was first published on March 8, 2011 under the title “Revenge of the permutations.”

In his book, Interaction of Color, Josef Albers notes the following in his introduction: …color deceives continually…, and it was this tendency of color to deceive that was getting the better of me today.

Having completed the seven dots needed for the seven dot motifs, I began my day needing to complete, all but one of the motifs because a couple of days earlier, in a fit of exuberance, I had finished the orange dot with a cherry red border. That one decision made, I had delusions of quickly and easily moving on from there.

I began with a dot made from Red Heart Super Saver in a dark orchid color. After careful consideration and creating at least half-a-dozen lists of possible combinations, I settled on yellow:

However, as soon as I had finished it, I decided I no longer liked it. In short order, I had removed the yellow, and eventually, I decided to try orange:

Almost as soon as I had completed the square with orange, I liked the yellow again, but I didn’t have time to redo everything that would have to be redone before it was time to take my son to Aikido.

So, I left it, because when all of the squares were together, they started to take on another look entirely:

Colors, as it turns out, are just as fickle as I am.