Majora's Mask Blanket

I've been on the struggle bus for quite a few months with one of my projects - my Majora's Mask blanket.  I started it in June 2015 and the goal was to finish this Christmas as it is a gift for my fiance.  The idea started out innocent enough.  I got the idea from watching Very Pink Knit's video for a Tunisian crochet blanket that you can cross stitch a design onto.  I asked my fiance if he wanted a design on his and he picked the mask from Majora's Mask

[Majora's Mask is a video game in the Zelda series]

Since the blanket was going to be lap-sized, he wanted a detailed design that would look the best blown up to a large scale.  I found a website that lets you upload a picture and it gives you the cross stitch design and colors you need.  It even gives you various degrees of complexity, which I really appreciate.  The level I chose has 75 different colors, but I could have gone down a level or two if that was too many colors to buy. The site is great, and if you really like to cross stitch, I could see it being used to make custom gifts by creating patterns based off of family photos.   In any case, it all seemed easy enough, but everything changed when it came to the actual execution of the project.

I first had to crochet the blanket, which took a while only because it was a medium grey color and I had many balls of yarn to get through.  It was boring!  I used 9 skeins of Cascade 220 Superwash to get the job done.  It is a nice sized blanket - perfect for keeping his lap warm while he's at his computer (which is where he is almost all waking hours).  

But then came time for the cross stitch.  It seemed a simple enough idea, but I didn't anticipate how long it would take since I have so many colors.  I honestly thought I could get it done in a month.  And maybe I could, if I didn't have anything else to do that month.  Alas, it took me 3 months to get 75% of the way done and it is just torture trying to finish the last 25%.  This project is, indeed, a labor of love and I don't see myself doing this again anytime soon.