The Blog

 I can hit a target through a telescope...

Did I ever link you lot to the (Doctor Who) Handlebars vid? Because it's one of my favourite things in the universe, and I frequently leave it on loop for many repetitions at a time.

Speaking of, Eleven is lovely, Amy is fabulous and I want to give her many hugs (especially her young self who took to biting psychologists). Can't wait for the next episode, and have surprisingly high hopes for the Moff's reign. This could just be because Eleven reminds me of a baby Four, but it might be that we went a whole episode without actually killing anyone (correct me if I'm wrong). Also I'm looking forward to seeing River Song again.

Anyway, I'm going to bed, but I thought it might be prudent to check in and say I'm still here and I am not completely useless. I auditioned for a telly commercial last Tuesday before celebrating Gemma winning many ribbons at the easter show. Going to the post office tomorrow or the day after to send off the stack of things I've been failing to send for quite a while.

I'm hoping that as soon as I get over this stupid cold I might actually start catching up on life. It's unlikely, but the hope lives on. While I'm waiting, the giant chapter of doom hit 10,000 words this afternoon. No real end in sight, as I've lost the thread of the narrative, but I'm giving up on it this weekend. Oh, and the boss said the last chapter I gave him was "pretty awesome", which is high praise indeed.

Labels: crafty-Cat, crazy mexicans, cross stitch, doctor who, i can ride my bike with no handlebars, I made this, mail, thesis ftl, writing

In response to a series of requests...

Here's my brief guide to making my version of Mina de Malfois' Internet Sampler, as shown below.

First off, the pattern is by Gnat. Worship at her altar. And print out a copy.

The one thing everyone keeps asking me for is my list of colours. I don't have all of them, as most came from the family's box of miscellaneous leftover stranded cotton. And while I do have a list that I worked from, sadly chunks of it read as "grey 1 = kangaroo 4", which isn't helpful for the rest of you. But here's the simple version:

• Greens (Firefox 2 back/forward buttons): DMC 907, 906, 905 and one darker from the set. 905 was also used for the green row of checkerboard squares.
• Yellows (Firefox 2 home button): DMC 742, 743 and 3842.
• Blues (Firefox 2 refresh button): DMC 3846, 3845, 3844, 3845, 3846 (it's easy to know your colours will match if they're all from the same row in the shop). 3845 is the second row of checkerboard squares.
• Blue (prayer and "home" window): DMC 824
• Purple ("log in"): DMC 154
• Purple (border): From the stash - Anchor 0102 (though this appears to be ancient). It's a very Cadbury purple, if that helps.
• Red (hearts): DMC 817. It's very shiny and bold.
• Maroon (404, eleventy): No tag, sorry.
• Peach (smilie border): I don't have a number for this, but it's in the box next to a similar but lighter DMC 352, so choose something a shade darker than that.
• Pinks and purple (3rd and 4th checkerboard rows and @s): No idea, sorry. The @s are very fushia, go crazy. :)
• Greys (home button, tickybox and radio button): You need 3 greys for the buttons and tickyboxes, two dark and one light. These came from a koala set, but there are plenty of available references for anyone who is stressed about the colour.
• Grey (alphabet, cursors): This is a darker grey than those that came before, almost charcoal.
• Black and White: No numbers, but you should have those in your stash anyway.

Other notes:

• I stitched on 16 count aida cloth in an off-white colour (I think I may have recycled the packaging). The whole thing (including borders as shown above) measures 42x33.5cm (~16.5*13 inches).
• I made the letters of the alphabet one pixel taller than they were in the original pattern. I forget why, but it was important at the time. Just use your judgement, or the high resolution version of my photos if you're desperate. I worked it from the centre out, and didn't worry too much about making the letters be properly lined up with a real keyboard (e.g. 'B' should be centred between 'G' and 'H'). There comes a point where you have to let these things go.
• I made the home button by shrinking down a screenshot. In a perfect world I would have spaced it properly so that it was the same size as the back/forward/refresh arrows.
• In a truly perfect world, I would have made a Mac version of the cursors. This is not a perfect world, and I'm lazy. :)

I think that's it. If you have any questions, or if I missed something you did ask for, drop me a comment and I'll reply as soon as humanly possible. Thanks for reading.

Labels: crafty-Cat, cross stitch, crossing the streams, emails, fandom, mina de malfois, pattern notes