Starched Knit Moss

Old English stercan, to stiffen — past-participle of starch. As a color modifier, starched implies a clear-and-stiff-and-formal quality, the crisp color of Edwardian-period formal-evening-shirt-and-collar starched-and-pressed dress-attire. Sits at the crisp-and-finished end of the grid, parallel to pressed and ironed in usage.

Old English cnyttan, to-knit. As a color modifier, knit implies a hand-knitted-loop-and-stitch quality, the visual register of Aran-Island-and-Fair-Isle-knit hand-knitted-and-cabled wool-and-yarn jumper-and-cardigan knit-textile surfaces under Aran-and-Fair-Isle hand-knitted-cable-and-jumper textile light. Sits at the modifier-and-texture end of the grid, parallel to woven and yarn in usage.

Bryophyta — the nonvascular plants that colonized land 470 million years ago, before vascular plants and far before flowers. The color refers to a thick mat of Hypnum or sphagnum on a temperate forest floor: a soft, slightly yellow-shifted green with the velvet texture of millimeter-scale leaves. Dustier than fern, deeper than lichen, with the slow patience of a plant that lives by absorbing rain through its surface.