Things Treasured

 Well, let me dust a little in here before I set anything down. It's been far too long since I came and did any kind of update. Truly, most of my online presence has been suffering as of late. I'm going through a somewhat creative resurgence and I'm finding too much time online, not directly related to my inspirations to be stifling. I do go through these phases though, and eventually I'll balance out again. I thought I might show progress on the enormous project I have going.

This is … large. Ha. I'm not entirely sure if it's going to end up a wall hanging or not. That was it's original purpose, but I don't know what I have a wall large enough to mount it on. When this thing is finished I am definitely going to want to see it all the time. I've recently discovered the crack that is Kuroshitsuji, or Black Butler if you prefer. The story is not for those under 17 or 18 so I won't go into particulars here. I'll simply say the story is beautiful and cruel and the art is absolutely lovely.

I have been working on a large piece depicting the title of the manga/anime. It's being done in crochet and is one of the larger pieces I've ever tackled. It's 200 stitches wide and will be... 183 rows high (I think) I need to double check my pattern. I haven't done a large picture piece in crochet since I finished the Hunger Games emblem. So I decided to do another two color piece to get me back into practice. It's in black and white, as one might expect. (Kuro Ni/Shiro Ni) After some playing around with different programs I had a relatively easy time making the pattern. The next one will have 5 colors I believe.

The project is going well but hasn't been without it's issues! After about 20 rows, I suddenly noticed a huge error in the graphic I made the pattern from. One of the Japanese characters was wrong and didn't match the cover of the manga. Ugh. So I went into my graphics program and fixed it. PIXEL BY PIXEL. Oh god, I hope it's correct now. HA! Anyway, I'm pleased as punch with how it's coming out. I'm using a 5.00 MM hook, AKA US H hook. One of my inspirations for this kind of work, Lee Mac from http://totallee.net/ just finished an amazing piece using a 3.00 MM hook. (Totally, go see it. It will blow your socks off). I don't know if I can imagine doing one of these with a 3... I have a 3.5 though and the next one will have a fair bit of detail in it. I'm contemplating trying it. I can make the blocks have more stitches for detail and they will still come out at a size closer to what I want. This thing I am making now is like 3 feet long!

SO enough babble... how about some pictures right?