"I don't know how to

put colours together," someone told me yesterday. We were both looking at some hand-dyed knitting wool.
It had been dyed by a male knitter I know. He spins it, dyes it and knits it himself. The end results are not always to my taste but I recognise that they suit him and his male partner, another fibre artist. Throughout the cooler weather they wear an array of handknitted items.
The two new vests I looked at yesterday were works of art.
The knitter had also brought along the small amounts of left over yarn so that people could see what he had made the garments from - and that is where it became really interesting. It would have taken someone with the capacity to put colours together to recognise that the apparently unrelated colours could come together as a whole.
There were quite a number of colours that I consider "muddy". They lacked the interest of "heathers" but, because they were hand dyed they did have irregularities in them. On their own they would have made a very dull garment indeed. Then there was a rather bright mustard - not a colour I care for under any circumstances. It was barely visible in the garments. There was also a bright blue and a deep red. They were also barely visible in the garments.
If any of these colours had been given a prominent place in the garments they would have spoiled the otherwise careful balance. All that had happened was that there was an occasional stitch of bright colour across a row. It was barely there and yet it was everywhere as well.
Words should work the same way.