Stitchboard

There aren't many free tools for creating crochet patterns. There are several paid pattern making programs, but none that I've seen effectively deal with detailed color charts for tapestry crochet. Enter Stitchboard. Stitchboard's pattern wizard can help you take a picture of your choice and turn it into a stitch chart. This makes it an excellent tool for those who want to make custom designs. It's nice of the creators to make it available for free, and even more features are available to you if you make an account. The settings and options are decent and the program makes filet and tunisian crochet charts as well.

Though I am certainly thankful that this tool is available, it has a few shortcomings that I wish to discuss. The most annoying part of using the pattern wizard is that it does not allow you set the height of the chart and only allows a width up to 150 stitches. This can become a problem when you want to add a border to your finished project that requires a specific number of stitches. For example, a shell border requires a multiple of 6 stitches plus 1. Since you can't control how many rows the chart has, you may have to add random rows to the top and bottom to meet your border requirements.

The chart that Stitchboard comes up with is more of a starting place than a complete pattern. This becomes more pronounced the more complex the picture you start with is. Here's an example. When I started with this stock photo of a heart:

and gave a width of 100 stitches, the program spat out this chart:

Not bad at all! Very useful. There seem to be three colors instead of the two in the original picture, but it doesn't matter that much. However, when I used this picture:

and gave a width of 100 stitches, this is the chart that I got:

Hm. Pretty good, but needs some editing. There are brown stitches around the pupils even though the original pupils were all black. The nose isn't symmetrical. Perhaps you need to set an odd stitch width if you want to achieve symmetry. There are brown patches around the body and whites of the eyes that need to be cleaned up. Also, the colors of the spots and the rest of the body are too close, making it difficult to look at. As you can see, the chart is a good starting place but you'd have to go in with an image editor to clean it up which is a time-consuming and somewhat difficult process.

Just for fun, let's see what happens if we upload an actual picture into Stitchboard. We'll use the 100 stitch width again. Here's the picture, a flower from a greenhouse we visited in Hawaii:

and here's the result:

Better than I expected! But that's a lot of colors to work with. Perhaps I should have limited the color options quite a bit more.

I hope this review of Stitchboard proves useful to you, if only to make you aware of a tool you may not have been familiar with. I'm going to continue to use it until a better tool becomes available.

Friday Focus: Lee Mac

In the world of crochet it sometimes takes another crocheter to properly appreciate your work. A project that might elicit an "oh, that's cool" from a random friend or relative might very well get a "WOW, holy crap!" from a fellow hooker or brocheter. When you know just how much work must have gone into an object or pattern to make it possible, when you can feel the tingles of all of those stitches being made in your own hand... it makes you a bit more appreciative.

I don't know how anyone could look at Lee Mac's work and be anything but amazed. Also known as totallee, Lee has created some freaking sweet tapestry portraits that surely make fans everywhere squee. So many colors, so much detail, so much nerdy-ness. If you crochet you will intimately appreciate just how much effort goes into her pieces. If you don't crochet I want you to understand that the patience and effort that Lee is putting into her art could be likened to a person moving thousands of grains of rice from one bowl to another with a pair of tweezers. Really, I don't even know why I'm still talking. I'll just let Lee show you how incredible she is. She's been featured in many more illustrious places and I'm honored to have her here. Let's welcome her as today's featured designer!

Who taught you to crochet? How long have you been doing it?
My Mum was nagged into it when I was about 7 or 8 years old -_^! I saw her crocheting a massive granny square rug with every colour of yarn you could imagine and instantly nothing else in the world mattered except for learning how to do it. I made a massive granny rug of my own in some really pretty pastel shades (full of zillions of holes that you could fit your freaking head through), then BAM, excitement over and I think I took up tennis. Which lasted a week. I think after that it was beaded friendship bracelets. Lasted a week. Pretty obvious pattern in my personality is coming through here now isn’t it?! -_^!

In December of 2008, I came across the AMAZING world of crocheted portraits courtesy of Todd Paschall over at crochetbynumbers.com on a random surf one day and BAM! That instant AGHH-I-HAVE-TO-LEARN-HOW-TO-DO-THIS-LIKE-RIGHT-NOW feeling came back. I bought a few patterns from Todd, learnt the awesome cut and tie technique and BAM! Addicted. For longer than a week this time!!! Three cheers for progress!!!

Why do you crochet?
Oh man, too many reasons!
I love the freedom of creativity it brings.
I love the endless possibilities.
I love working with every shade of colour I can get my hands on. Colour = happiness.
I love the sense of peace and relaxation that comes with curling up in bed, with a cuppa, a good Korean drama and balls of yarn dotted about the place.
I love finding out half way through a complicated colour-changing-nightmare of a row that I’ve completely stuffed up and get to hurl my hook at the wall with great force.
* I love crocheting as a stress relief. *see previous sentence.
I love the amazing friendships that have come with sharing my projects on the world wide web. Finding other folks who love all things Harry Potter, Back To The Future, Monkees and Star Trek related is a really tough ask!!

I guess I keep crocheting out of the pure joy you get in creating a finished piece to be proud of, but also in the awesome and always surprising journey you take in starting a piece, watching it grow and then getting to share it with the world.

Crochet Favorites
I’m a bit boring and uninformed when it comes to brands, hooks and basic materials in general! As I mainly stick to crocheted portraits, the key is finding the right shades of colours, rather than what brand to use. I’ve been known to use crochet cotton, yarn ranging from 4 to 8ply, and also string in one portrait alone!

The majority of my pieces to this point have been made with an el cheapo plastic grey 4.5mm hook. However at the start of this year, my chubby little hands decided to give a 3mm hook a try and my god the friendship has blossomed. Services for the 4.5mm hook will commence once it has completed duty on a few works-in-progress.

What are you working on right now?
I have a number of projects on the go at the moment (said every crocheter EVER -_^). I have a MASSIVE Beatles piece that is currently at 20% that will probably take approximately 20 years to complete, as it measure 260 stitches wide. One row takes around an hour and a half to complete on that big boy.

 
I also have projects depicting folks such as – KPOP superstar G-Dragon, Uhura from the Original Star Trek series, Mary Poppins and Bert, and Wayne and Garth from Wayne’s World on the go!!

A few finished objects...
Gone With The Wind: Was completed in 2010. After experiencing the film for the first time, I was exploding with the need to make a piece in tribute <3 What a film!!!

The Hogwarts Bunch Blanket: Was a complete labour of love! I am a self-confessed Potterhead and had the idea of making separate portraits of Harry, Ron and Hermione with the intent of turning them into 3 fun cushions for the couch. However, when I lined the three panels up for a picture on the floor, I got a flash of the opening credits to the Brady bunch as it looked like each character was stuck in a box. So I then went ahead and created the ‘Hogwarts Bunch’ and turned them into one almighty double-sized blanket!

Twinkie Chan!!!: Since re-entering the world of colourful crochet back in 2008, I have been an avid blog reader and admirer of all things Twinkie Chan <3!! She’s an absolute superstar and her creations never cease to inspire me and make me smile.

I have a website where I blog about current projects and also share some free patterns ^__^

There you can find links to my Facebook page and my ravelry.com group ^__^

I would like to take the opportunity to thank Sara for thinking of me and giving me the opportunity to share my work! Thank you!! xox

Isn't she just so vivacious? The words 'totes adorbs' come to mind. Thank you so much for the shout-out, Lee! However, it is I who is all too pleased to be featuring your incredible tapestries. Thanks for joining us today!

Paris Baby Set

I'm really excited about my new pattern, the Paris Baby Set. While it did take a lot of hark work, I am happy to have written this pattern in such a way that confident beginners can successfully follow it. I've sometimes seen really fun and interesting color work patterns that lack any color changing instructions and/or only show a chart. If you don't know how to read a chart, you won't be able to complete the pattern! That just wouldn't do for me. I endeavored to write a pattern with clear color change and row by row instructions so it could be accessible to everyone. This meant a lot more work on my part but less work for those who follow my pattern.

Don't you just love the little beret? It took shape exactly as I had hoped. I had a lot of fun writing this pattern, which is good because I am just about to start writing another tapestry pattern! The Paris Set can be found on Craftsy and Ravelry. Je suis très heureuse!