Maybe someone just slipped the color number on because it was loose on the shelf. I have #160 and it looks like a violet blue color. On this website it is listed as med. gray. I don't think it looks gray at all. Sorry I couldn't help you more with this.
Maureen

I never have. I would not use either skein of floss until you checked this out. One way would be to look on your pattern's "Symbol/Floss" color list and since if there is a description of the color, ie. light lav.
or light med. blue. next to the symbol that might help. On my DMC floss checklist of 2013, DMC 160 is listed as "medium gray blue".

I know what you are talking about. It has happened to me before. The colors weren't as close as you are describing. I think mine were bright green and a bright blue. Not sure what happened.

My first thought after reading your post was what maubenett suggests. People let their kids play around and those little bands slip off and somebody sticks them back on there. I'd double check and then order from here or go back to the store and look at the entire box of 160 and see what you come up with.
I've stitched with floss that I had owned several years, sort of a minty green and when I bought additional floss it was a totally different shade - much darker. Fortunately, it was in an area where the difference looked planned. I guess dye lots very, I know with yarn they do. Since then I make sure that I have enough floss of each color to completed my project.
Good luck.

Is it possible that one was exposed to sunlight and faded i've had that experience with old floss

Glad that I can take a break from housework. Feeling a little better and finally getting caught up - well more or less.
Nancye, if the one that I was working with had been exposed to sunlight and faded then it must have occurred before I purchased it. I went through that color like wildfire because I had so many mishaps. I started three times. It was a wedding sampler and when I finally got it finished my son and d in l had been married 15 years already. I like to wait and give the marriage a chance to work out so I won't spend all my time and money (framing) in vain. lol
I keep my floss in the dark. Another thought just occurred to me if there is any fading from sunlight it would most likely affect the topmost layers of the skein - I'm thinking. But what do I know. In any case it's unfortunate when it happens and you are almost at the end.

Thank you ladies for your input. I think since I have so much of the background and branches done on my "lying in wait" project and it was done with the bluer color that that is what I will finish it with. First I have to go to Joann's and Hobby Lobby and try to match up that color. I tried stitching an area with the lavender and it blends in fairly well so will just let that area alone for awhile and continue to work on the actual wolf and ponder what to do as I have more done. This pattern is really a challenge for me as so many of the colors are so very close in color. One black, one navy blue and 2 colors in between so once they are stitched it is almost impossible to tell them apart. I love the pattern picture itself and adore my oldest son so will persevere and finish but it may take me a couple of years. I wonder if anyone else who has done this pattern has been this challenged. Take care and talk with you soon.
cheryl

Good thinking, clplatt, I finished mine in the darker color and no one was the wiser. On some patterns you can get away with it. It's all a judgment call. Two more years! Sounds like a sentence. LOL

Don't listen to me, I 've worked on some projects for 2 and 3 years. Not due to size or complexity but due to laziness, boredom, wanting to try something different, etc. Eventually I went back and finished. Now I try to be more disciplined. My storage situation is somewhat different from my old house and I tire of having to pull out floss and return it or search through several projects for a particular color. I am beginning a new one tonight. I am doing this one for my daughter and cannot put it off any longer. She glances at the basket whenever she comes over but no longer asks.

TEX, I waited for 40 years to stitch a wedding sampler! Like you, I guess that I was waiting to see that it worked out...LOL & ROTFL! I have a few wedding sampler designs, one started; then a 25th anniversary sampler and a 40th sampler to do. Don't know if I will ever get them done, but do hope that we have a 50th!
He is dragging lately and I worry that we might not make it. We both worked long and hard hours and raised three kids. Lost my baby in my first marriage to SIDS. Then our son was killed when an adult. We have the two girls, one local and one in Arizona. I miss them both, as the local girl is very busy as usual and the one in AZ is not coming here at all. She is very happy there!
I often wonder about my stitching now. I tend to want it all, but am more into smaller designs now, after my eyesight got worse. Can't afford the new eyeglasses yet, but work on 16 count and really would prefer linen. Far too much stash...need to live to 300...
I agree that the floss bands were mixed up in the store. Not their fault...if they find a loose band in that slot, they don't check it because clerks don't have the time! Rare for me to find a floor clerk at our JoAnns or at Michaels...have to bother the cashier! I have very old, old, middle-aged, newer and quite recent DMC and triple checking colors, but find no changes. Might be me storing in a cool dry, dark place?

At one point, I came across the same problem ... DMC had changed their formulas, and the floss numbers had changed ...