Arcade Mochi: Stars and Stripes

It’s been about two and a half months since my last update about my as-yet-unnamed arcade mochi, which seems to be a consistent interval with this epic project. But things are happening! We have colors!

arcade_color1

It was only as I was photographing these bags of Cascade 220 that I realized how patriotic this arcade game might be. But I think the color ratios will be different enough, and I’ll probably throw in some yellow too. Choosing the final colors for this guy was a big holdup with the project—I want him to look just right if I’m going to knit the whole thing over again!

Before I go on, here’s a reminder of where I was with this project in November:

arcade_prototype

The finished prototype has been sitting on my desk ever since, just staring at me for two and a half months.

Aside from colors, the other big decision-making that I’ve had to do before moving forward was figuring out what kind of colorwork I wanted to integrate. There are just so many 8-bit possibilities! But (at least for now) I settled a single large star to go on the sides, plus maybe smaller stars on the top panel.

I used Illustrator to do all my colorwork “sketching,” then I knitted my first star swatch.

arcade_color2

(Yes, the colors I used in Illustrator and the colors I used for the swatch and the colors I’m using for the final design are all different. Why make things simple when they can be complicated?)

My first star turned out a little too wide (stupid grids and my refusal to get the proportions of the squares right before beginning to knit), so here’s my second, slightly taller star swatch.

arcade_color3

And now it’s time to start knitting what I hope will be the final toy. I’m feeling star-crazy, so I’m beginning with the panel that will make up the back and sides of the toy. Since I already made a full prototype, I know exactly how many stitches to cast on and how to shape the sides of the piece, and I can just concentrate on the color design at this point. I even stopped to take a pattern photo!

arcade_color4

As I mentioned in my “shop talk” post from a couple weeks back, I usually knit things over again to take the technique photos for my patterns, but when I’m working on a project this large, I try to photograph crucial steps as I knit.

I still have far to go before finishing, but I finally feel like I have a clear direction with this project. I should probably stop making predictions about when the pattern will be ready, but it WILL be ready eventually, even if no one remembers arcade games by the time it’s finished.

4 thoughts on “Arcade Mochi: Stars and Stripes

  1. It should be called gnome love, a game where tiny gnome must collect all the hearts so that he can impress his girl friend! He must also avoid being attacked by tiny snowmen!:)

  2. I’m still soooo looking forward to this! Be warned: I WILL make it jumbo-sized and it shall be my favorite pillow~ May the knitting fairies be with you!

  3. I like the primary color choice, and the star. Taking your time with this project is really paying off. It would be nice to see the little space-bot characters included somewhere-they add personality and cuteness!

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