Embracing the Nerd in Me

 Hey there!

I've been busy.  Well, not -busy- per say, but I'm doing stuff!  I finished a few things and started an epic project, one that won't see actual textiles for a little while, but that's cool.

Before I get into that, let's talk about Yoshis!

 

Sometime, a few weeks ago, I finished all the blackwork for the yoshis! All that was left was to fill in the color.  I'm telling you, that pattern keeper cross stitch app was invaluable for this.

And finally it is done.  This was an interesting piece, the black outline was probably one of the most notable features.  I also was intrigued by the number of colors in this seemingly simple design.  You would think it's a bright, happy, simple design, but this used a whopping 80 colors!  That's a lot more than I would think.

My persephone cross stitch uses probably half that, and has three times the detail.

Fortunately floss is fairly inexpensive, so it's not a huge deal, but it was surprising how detailed the designer went into shading the Yoshis.

In between all that I did finish a pair of socks and started a new handspun hat:

There's not an enormous amount to say about either of them.  The socks were felici sock yarn, my usual 64 stitch vanilla sock.  I used the stripes to help measure rounds so they would end up the same size.  there are differences, but that's cool.  I'm not fussed.

As for the hat, the handspun is one I recently finished on my wheel.  It was my effort to spin thicker.  ironically, it is pretty solidly fingering weight, but it's a two ply, and my go-to has been a 3-ply fingering, so it's actually thicker.  Technically.

I'm doing the sockhead hat, which is a simple, slouchy, beanie. It has a long section of ribbing so you can fold the brim over, and the stockinette portion is really tall too, so it's slouchy.  I'm probably just going to knit it as written.  It's my vanilla knitting for now, though I have been working on my t-shirt off and on as well.

 I don't have a picture of the t-shirt WIP, but I'm through the waist shaping and working evenly till arm separation.  I am definitely going with a raglan thing, so this means I need to cast on some ribbing for each of the sleeves. When I get to that part, I'll simply add the sleeves to the body and continue working up through the raglan decreases.  I'll try to remember to get some pictures for next time so you guys can imagine what I'm talking about if you don't know how sweater construction works.

Well, I've come to it. The big epic project I was hinting at.

I'm finally getting started on the Final Fantasy 9 character cross-stitch project!I started thinking about it a day or two before I finished the yoshis.  How am I going to get these characters into the right dimensions for putting onto fabric?

Well, it took some doing.  I started off by browsing the many (many) cross stitch design programs out there.  There are quite a few, and most of them will at least attempt to turn a picture into a cross stitch pattern.  It's to middling degrees of success.

For example, stitch fiddle can work up to a very (very) large size, BUT you are limited to 50 colors, which is less than ideal.

There's another program, stitchboard, which can work any number of colors, but you're limited to 150 pixels square. That's about 10"x10".  It's rather too small for what I was thinking.

There were a few other programs with limited success and I don't remember all the names, so I won't drag them into this.  Suffice to say, I needed to go back to the drawing board.  literally.

Cause all the pictures I was using were Entirely Too Complicated for turning into pixelated drawings.  What I want is too detailed for cutesy 8-bit style cross stitching, and yet simpler than the cut-scene and cover art designs.  I have some fabric, 18"x25"-- not a small piece by any means. But not large enough to include everything.

I decided my best bet  would be to draw them in a pixel program.  Ok, Toby suggested I use the pixel program, and he was on to something, indeed.

So, I got started:

This one is Zidane!  He's a bit rough, I was getting used to the program and, indeed, drawing.  I haven't done any digital art, and I haven't drawn anything in years.

For Garnet/Dagger, I put her in with the cover art concept so you can compare.  I might go in and tweak her a little bit, especially her little leg band there, but I was definitely getting the hang of all this by her.

Thirdly, I did everyone's favorite black mage, Vivi! I really like this one.  I was definitely hitting my stride by this point.

Yesterday I did Freya.  I think I'm most proud of this one.

I also worked on Quina, but I didn't finish them yet.

I have Eiko and Steiner to do.  Then I'm going to sub in Beatrix for Amarant, cause I don't really like Amarant at all.  I am planning on doing a chocobo, too, and a moogle, for fun!

And because I'm a raging perfectionist, I'm probably going to go back and redo Zidane, cause I've learned a lot even since I finished him.

And Then I need to figure out how they're all going to go together in the final piece.  I have actually already turned the ones I've finished into cross stitch patterns through stitch board.  Like I said, I was limited by 150 pixels, but it turns out that that size is fine for what I'm doing.  Even if I just have each character floating by themselves on the fabric, 150 pixels is actually a lot bigger than I need for each guy.

I was thinking about smooshing them together in a line up, then possibly adding the logo across the top, but getting the drawings together on one page might turn a bit daunting.  I'll have to play around with some things. It'll be interesting either way.

So stay tuned!