Making a Photo Into a Chart

I do many crafty hobbies but cross stitch I will say is my favorite. If I was only allowed one hobby for the rest of my life cross stitch it would be. Cross stitch is versatile and portable and most hobby stores have all you need to get started so finding supplies is rather easy. Any picture can be made into cross stitch, some take a lot of time and work to look right while others are rather simple. Now I am not very good at making complex photos into cross stitch patterns even with the help of PC Stitch 10, but I am getting better at it.

I like to first re-size the photo using pixlr.com. It lets me re-size by pixel size. Pixel size is what I use when I import a photo to my cross stitch software. The number of pixels wide by the number of pixels high is what I put in for the number of stitches wide I want by the number of stitches high. If you just put in whatever photo you already have without resizing its probably going to be huge. You want a nice balance between detail and size.

I am going to walk you through the basics of making a simple photo into a chart with a free program called KG-Chart which you can download for free here. You will want the LE version as the Pro version is not free.

We are going to be using this photo which I found on the interwebs. Its a picture of a little elf from the video game Harvest Moon.. Not tons of detail but also not a simple 8-bit sprite either. Oh and if possible .png is the best file format to use as its crisper and clearer then the other formats.

When you go to pixlr you will want to open the photo editor and open a photo. My photos usually come from my computer so I choose that option, browse my computer for the photo and click open.

After the file has opened go to image at the top and go to image size. A window will pop up and you want constrain proportions to be checked so make sure it is and then put in whatever number you want in one of the boxes, the other one will change automatically because you have constrained proportions checked. I choose a width of 100 pixels.

For this image the background is transparent and that's why the background is checkered. I decided to pick a teal color that wasn't found in the photo and fill it in. I just used the paint bucket tool.                   The reason I did this is because if I don't the background will be black when put into the photo editor and that makes it hard to eliminate it later because the edges of the image are black also.

That's really all I do to the photo, but that's mainly because I am no good at photo-shopping things. So after that I save it to my computer in the format of .png again and now were ready to open it in KG-Chart.

Go to file and under Data Exchange click on Import.
This window will pop up and if you are following along exactly type in and check what I have filled in. If your not following along exactly then where it says Org. Width. that's the number you want  to have in the Width(ct.). After you have everything filled in click OK. Oh I did change the Colors to 25 so I didn't get a crazy amount you can make it higher or lower at your discretion. For this picture it could probably be lower.

First before anything else I want to delete the teal background I put in. So to do that I zoom in so I know what symbol represents the teal and over in the section where it shows all the colors I click on Selected and scroll down until I find that symbol and then i right click it and click delete and voila its gone.

After that its pretty much manually cleaning it up which can be time consuming depending on the image you have used. This one all I would really do is erase the white around the outside of the image and check the colors against my actual floss. Maybe get rid of some colors if I feel that they are to close to each other to matter. To easily get rid of colors re-import it using a smaller number in the colors box, just do this before you do any work to it or you will have done it all for nothing.

I know that there is way more to actually do to photos before you put them into the charting software but as I said I am horrible at photo-shopping things. By all means though play around and have fun, that and the interwebs is how I learn after all.

Starting to Cross Stitch

The nice thing about cross stitch is that you don't really need to much to start but there's plenty of extras to get. To begin all you really need is some Aida cloth, embroidery floss, scissors, a needle and a pattern maybe a hoop of some sort depending on how big your project is.  Just remember that if you get a standard hoop that you don't want to leave it on your project when you're not working on it otherwise it will leave creases that will be difficult to get out. Personally I like Q-snaps. I can leave them on my project without them leaving marks which is worth the extra cost to me.

If you decide to get a kit for your first project I recommend not going for the big fancy ones with tons of detail. There is a good chance that if you pick a Gold Collection or Heirloom Collection one you might drive yourself insane, damn cross stitch to the depths of hell and never pick it up again. In fact why spend $20+ on a big kit  if you don't know if your gonna like it, get a smaller one. If you're like me however you will ignore this advice and pick whatever the hell you want, that's fine too.

Kits are nice because they come with absolutely EVERYTHING you will need except scissors and a hoop. I do suggest picking up spare needles though in case you lose yours, damn needles are always sneaking away on me. Most of the larger kits will range from $25 to $45 at least in my area. Usually the more expensive the greater the detail and more time consuming.  Kits come with instructions too and of course the chart and key. I like to make working copies of my charts and keep the original somewhere safe, that way I can mark on the working copy. Or you could get wet erase markers and put it in a protective plastic sleeve and mark on it that way.

Now maybe just maybe you don't want a kit for your first project maybe none of them strike your fancy. In that case the inter-webs is your friend. SpriteStitch.com is my favorite place to go for pattens. Most of them are video game related but they have other patterns too if you check out their pattern wiki here.The right set of words in a google or bing search can net you tons of free patterns however the quality may vary.

If you decide to not get a kit you will need to know the dimensions of your pattern and translate that in to how big to cut the fabric. Too much is always better then too little fabric but I try to not be wasteful. I use the calculator here that does all the math for me. If you look at the calculator you shall notice it asks for fabric count. All my first projects were started on 14 count Aida cloth. You can chose between even weave or Aida cloth.

Once you have your supplies set up you re ready to stitch your first little x.  Everyone stitches differently and as long as your x's cross the same way you re doing it right. When I say your x's need to cross the same way I mean that the top leg should always slant the same way as the other x's top leg. So once you pick what way the slant is going to be stick with it. The top leg can slant / or \ it doesn't matter as long as they are all slanting the same way.

Now there's about a million ways to get your cross stitch done. The most common way to start your chart is to fold the fabric in half lengthwise then crosswise to find the middle and then follow the arrows on the pattern that designate the middle of the chart. This is where you shall begin. Find the corresponding symbol in the key thread your needle with that color and stitch away. You can make your x's of that color by following the symbols horizontally or by going vertically. Yo can do half the cross stitch going one way and then when you have all the symbols done go back and do the other half of the cross stitch.

Example: / / / / / / / / / / / /  or /               Then go back and fill in the other half so it looks like this  X X X X
                                            /
                                            /
                                            /
If you want you can do each X completely before moving on to the next X. I use both ways depending on where I am at and where I need to get to on the chart. Once your done with one symbol move on to the next. If you haven't done all of one symbol but the jump to the next one is to far you can always start a new symbol then too.

Please if I left something out or my explanations are confusing let me know and I shall try again as I know my explanations can get long winded and confusing.