Okay, so full disclosure – I had originally wanted to do all the Tales squares in one of two specific orders: either (ideally) in the order of when they came out, or chronologically in terms of when they happened within the history of the SMP
But it was hard to do it in the order of when they came out because I have no clue how to represent Town of Salem and so that immediately put my plan off to a bad start (plz send me ideas I have literally no idea what to do for that episode). But then the issue with doing it chronologically within the lore, I decided, is that it would just annoy me too much to try to stay on top of that and also the timeline itself is so uncertain that yeah, decided against that too.
So once more I have not got a proper system and have instead decided just to do them as and when I feel inclined to with no particular order in mind
So, now that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s have a look!
(oh also sorry about the pictures having a funny tint to them I took them early this morning after like two hours of sleep and didn’t want to take them again lmao)
Tales Cover
Alright so there were a few designs that I had for this one at first. Basically, like I’m doing the flags and extra squares for specific events (e.g. Butcher Army, Doomsday) and also for specific groups of people (e.g. Bench Trio, Bedrock Bros bc I can’t let it go), I wanted to do a couple of similar squares for the Tales pieces
The overall plan for the Tales of the SMP squares are for them to go around the outside of the ‘main’ blanket pieces, but my concern is if I don’t do a couple of extras like this one and a few other ideas I have, that I won’t have enough to go around as the border
That’s the current plan, at least, it’s subject to change depending on how the progress of the blanket goes
This square was actually a genuinely quite complicated design both in planning it and then trying to properly knit it – a lot of different colours, a lot of yarn threads going into it. You can see how it pinches in at the edges of the book because of the amount of yarn being used and me having to pull it across too many times and also just getting confused with the design
I like the actual design I have, it’s just in actually pulling it off where it’s not as good as it could be – I’ve been considering having it be 30x15cm rather than 15×15 and have the book and quill on one side and “Tales of the SMP” written on the other. I’m very much still in the planning stage of a lot to do with the blanket in general but also the specifics of how I’m going to work each ‘section’ as it were. Any suggestions in that vein would be so, so appreciated!
The Beach Episode
I have very mixed feelings about this square in particular
On the one hand, I love it because I think it looks kinda quite cool as a lighthouse and a beach scene
On the other hand, though, it’s quite untidy and I don’t think that it looks enough like a lighthouse for me to be happy with it
I did actually go back to the episode to check out what the lighthouse from the video itself looked like and I tried to model this off of it
But okay I will admit that this is somewhat altered from the actual design, because I fully just got distracted when I first started knitting it (I was on a Zoom call with some very lovely people and I was terrified at least half of the time but guys they are so nice I can’t get over it!)
So I think that the lighthouse itself would look better if I followed my original design properly, but I also want to make it thinner to try to make it look taller – but in that case I’d have to alter the roof
Which isn’t a big deal, to be fair, because I’m not content with that either – I kind of want to do it a different colour, perhaps black or dark grey or something, but then it wouldn’t be the same as in the episode. Torn – let me know your thoughts!
Another adjustment that I want to make is to use a darker grey for the railing of the lighthouse and perhaps the door too, just to make them stand out a little more – in particular for the railing as they fully just get lost in the white stripe
But the actual design of it I’m happy with – I think choosing the lighthouse above anything else from that episode was a good shout. All the changes that I want to make to it are fairly minor and I think it will look really cool once they’re done so… fingers crossed!
The Wild West
I kind of… really love this one?
I mean, lets be clear about something right away, I think the Wild West was probably my favourite Tales episode anyway – with the exception of maybe the Masquerade
So of course I’m bound to be biased about it, but look, if an episode has Techno in… I’m there for it, alright? I think it’s fairly understandable, though, don’t you?
I like the simplicity of the design, I think that it’s pretty clear what it is pretty much straight away – I mean there’s definitely room for improvement with it, but unlike with the previous two squares, it’s not like trying to go back and redo full pattern areas of it, it’s things like changing the rim of the hat, perhaps using a different background colour
That is, unless you guys have any other ideas as to how you think I could change and improve it, but I genuinely really do like this one!
The Haunted Mansion
Okay, I know, this was fairly unimaginative of me, but also – you have to admit that it looks pretty cute, right?
There was a brief moment where I entertained the idea of making Glatt a square here but then I figured that I probably ought to do a proper Glatt square at some point and as funny as it would be, I shouldn’t design it for the Tales section
(or should I???)
Similarly to the Wild West, I am pretty happy with it – of course, it is a pretty simple design and it’s very clear what it is as soon as you see it, but I don’t think that that’s necessarily a bad thing
What I want to do with the Tales squares is not only make a design to represent the episode as a whole, but also one for a moment per episode
For example, I would do a pattern square for, say, The Masquerade episode and then do another one as a tribute to perhaps one of the funniest lines or one of the most iconic moments. In The Masquerade that might be either “Vitamin B” Or “Spell Economy” or even just the first sighing of the egg
That’s just an idea, though, and I’d really like to hear your guys’ takes on it! If I were to do that, what lines or moments from Tales Episodes would you want to see have their own squares?
Also just send in some suggestions for design ideas for the episodes not included here – to be honest I kind of need help thinking up ideas for all of the remaining episodes except for the Masquerade. A lot happens in all of the episodes and I fully don’t know what to pick to best represent each one so any advice or suggestions is so, so appreciated! You can either comment or find me on any of my socials and send me a DM or an ask on Tumblr!
In the meantime, I hope that you’re well!
Freddie 🐸
Knitting With Norbert 