I feel your pain. I'm working on a black dog puppy, too many shades of black...including large areas of all black, with one stitch of random grey. Why? Just why?

Agreed @eagle1dw and @Jaj. Those kind of patterns are very stressful to me. In my current project, I bought a skein of a color for ONE stitch - out of the entire 236x160 design, I used that color for just ONE stitch!

Saintsgal, I think I would have use some artistic license, and said phooey with it!

Even Mother Nature varies shading from minute to minute...I don't feel at all guilty for changing the blending occasionally...I don't for the small things, but large items (large areas of trees and leaves, clouds...usually background)...it's YOUR project! Who says it has to be an exact replica? Relax, Kids! Give your neuroses a vacation. :)

What nobody likes to do "confetti"?
All patterns that have the mind-bending, teeth-gnashing, Psychological frontal-lobe distress-where you feel like running down the street screaming, "give me a lobotomy!"-
from doing these type of patterns, should have a warning
Sticker on the package.
I wouldn't be surprised if the oldie-but-goodie song, "They're Coming To Take Me Away, Ha! Ha!" was written by a stitcher working on a confetti-filled pattern.