Outer Wilds solar system embroidery

December 28, 2025

My partner and I played a lot of Outer Wilds during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, and it's probably no surprise that I fell in love with its charming characters and expansive universe. I decided to celebrate the game by embroidering its solar system.

Since Outer Wilds fans are especially touchy about spoilers, I should note that this project has them everywhere, I should probably note that you should read no further if you don't want any hints of what may come later in the game if you haven't already completed it and its DLC!

The solar system from the main story in Outer Wilds is stitched on a black linen evenweave background and placed in a wooden hoop. The sun is in the center, and each planet and the Interloper surround it and have their orbits marked with fine linen thread. Each orbit is stitched in stem stitch, first in white, then in a light grey, then in darker greys, until it burns out to being just black on black. Each planet is stitched in detail in a unique style that represents the planet. Stars and supernovas are scattered throughout the solar system in French knots.

I based my Outer Wilds solar system design on where the planets are at about 9 minutes and 48 seconds into the loop, but everything is re-scaled - while maintaining the vibes of the original proportions - so the planets and background supernovas in the dying universe aren't tiny. I realize now that I have a pattern of adding hundreds of additional (and arguably unnecessary) French knots to my embroidery projects - I am non-sarcastically shocked that I made this choice right after doing thousands upon thousands of French knots for the Milky Way in my Northern Sky & Southern Sky quilts.

Since the Eye of the Universe and the Owlk's home both aren't in Hatchling's solar system, I did each in a separate hoop, too. I chose to represent the Eye with a blend of the symbols used by the Nomai and the Stranger's inhabitants, and I opted to represent the Owlk's home moon and the planet it orbits before they raided it to build the Stranger.

The symbol of the Eye of the Universe is embroidered in tight stitches of a slightly multitonal lavender linen thread on a black linen background that's placed in a small, wooden circular hoop. All the stitches are oriented towards the center of the Eye, so some sections are knobby while others look more like satin stitch. Most of the Eye's symbol has the angular nature of the Nomai's symbol for the Eye of the Universe, but the section between about 12 o'clock and 4 o'clock on an analog clock uses the branchier represenation of the Eye that the inhabitants of the Stranger use. In the center, the Eye's coordinates are stitched in a thin black thread that matches the black linen background.
The Owlk's home moon and the planet that moon orbits is embroidered in many shades of teal, green, blue, and yellow on a black linen background that's placed in an even smaller wooden circular hoop. The Owlk's home moon and the body of the ringed planet it orbits are done in gradients of very short stitches of these colors, and the home moon is a bit darker and deeper overall, while the planet it orbits is brighter and has a lot more yellow stitches. The rings around the planet are done in tight back stitches: bands of bright blue lie in the center and near the edges and various shades of aquas and teals are in between. There are many bright stars in this universe that are represented by French knots in whites and light greys in the background.

Each of the planets has a slightly different feel due to the stitches I chose. Here are some detail shots of the main hoop:

The center of the Outer Wilds solar system embroidery on a black linen background: the Sun is embroidered in a gradient of colors from a bright yellow to oranges to reds with bright red scars and coronal loops at the edges. The gradient is in long and shorts, and the scars, outline, and coronal loops are in stem stitch in varying directions. A small Sun Station circles the Sun at roughly the 8 o'clock position on a clock in subtle gold hues. Orbital paths for the Hourglass Twins and Timber Hearth can be seen in a gradient from white to black following the planets. Timber Hearth itself is out of view here, and part of the Interloper's orbit can be seen. The Hourglass Twins are orbiting the Sun at about the 4 o'clock position. Burnt reds and browns make up the canyons of the Ember Twin with dense, small stitches. Light tan stitches flow between the two Twins representing the sand, and part of the Ash Twin's machinery is visible, also all done in small dense stitches in various tans. Small French knots in whites and greys of varying thread thicknesses make up the starfield in the background.
Timber Hearth in Outer Wilds solar system embroidery on a black linen background. Orbital paths for the Hourglass Twins, Timber Hearth, and Brittle Hollow can be seen in a gradient from white to black following the planets. Part of the Interloper's orbit can be seen. Timber Hearth is a gradient of greens in stem stitches from deep green at the top, farthest from the sun, to a bright lime at the bottom. Many trees in deeper greens dot the planet, as well as dirt patches in soft sand tones to deep browns in the settlement area. Blue rivers in chain stitch run down the planet. Rocky geysers are done in a variety of tight grey backstitch, and one is erupting with soft blue dots coming out into space. The Attlerock is a variety of tight grey stitches. It has the characteristic 'bite out of the apple' shape, and campfire smoke stitches can be seen floating away from the moon. Small French knots in whites and greys of varying thread thicknesses make up the starfield in the background.

Brittle Hollow, Hollow's Lantern, the Interloper, the white hole, and White Hole Station stitched on a black linen background: Brittle Hollow primarily features short stitches in pinks, purples, blues, and white. The cracking surface of the planet is made up of hexagons in erraticly oriented satin stitch in bright purples, deep purples, navy, and some nearly grey toned purples and blues, too. Beneath them, blue crystaline shards in long straight stitches point towards the center, and small clusters of stitches in varying shades of pinks make up some of the insides of the planet. The very center is done in small black stitches in a spiral pattern with stem stitch in shades of purple encircling it which is in turn encircled by a circle of stem stitches in shades of pink. The upper right section of the planet encased in ice is represented by short stitches in varying shades of white and very light aqua with a deep purple crack stitched across it. Hollow's Lantern's volcanoes are done in small stitches of medium greys, and the lava is done in three shades of orange. Three lava balls are each made of a short stitch in a bright orange that is split by another short stitch in a redder orange. The Interloper's rocky surface is made in short back stitches of grey tones with white and light aqua stitches on its snowy surface. The two tails of the comet are in gradients stitched in long and shorts of varying blues. The white hole is a very large colonial knot of three strands of white linen thread, and very small French knots in grey and burnt orange are nearby to represent the comets and debris that came through the white hole. White Hole Station is made stitched in fine linen threads in two coppery gold tones on top of swoosh in stem stitch with pale blue thread to represent the ice. A very small supernova of just a single white French knot surrounded by a ring of smaller French knots in finer teal and aqua threads is nearby Brittle Hollow.

Giant's Deep and the probe launcher embroidered on a black linen background: Giant's Deep is embroidered in overlapping swirls of tight chain stitch in shades of teal and green with white swirls near the poles. Some of the swirls are just wavy, while others end in loops to evoke the cyclones present on the planet. The probe launcher is stitches in two shades of coppery golds in thin criss-crossed stitches, and it is split in three pieces. Stars and orbits can be seen in the background.
Dark Bramble and the Quantum Moon embroidered on a black linen background: Dark Bramble's spindly wooden body is stitched in what looks like a stem stitch in multiple colors. Each branch is a fake stem stitch in two different shades of browns, some more red, others more grey, and small thorns extend from the body and larger branches as well. There are small pockets of light coming from the bulbous center that are represented by light yellow and white short stitch clusters. The borken icy surface attached to the end of the branches is represented through satin stitches in varying shades of light blue; the surface sections are lighter blues than the underside fragments. The Quantum Moon is orbiting Dark Bramble in my piece, and it's made up of a blend of multiple grey fine linen threads stitched over each other, giving it a fuzzier quality than the Attlerock. An embroidered star going supernova is nearby: it's made of French knots in thin threads in shades of blues, teals, and white, and its center is a French knot in a thicker white surrounded tightly by French Knots in a thicker aquamarine.
An embroidered supernova exploding in the Outer Wild solar system: it's a bunch of different French knots in various blues, teals, and whites on a black linen evenweave background. The center of the supernova is a large white French knot immediately bordered by slightly smaller aquamarine French knots. Other French knots in varying blues and whites spread out from that center. A tiny embroidered Attlerock is closer into the sun than this supernova.
The embroidered Stranger on a background of orbits and small stars: it's black thread on a black linen evenweave background, but the texture makes it visible close up. The Stranger has 5 sets of 2 spines coming out from the center, which are done in whipped wheel stitches.

I've hung the three hoops together on a wall near my desk:

The 10-inch hoop with the main story's primary galaxy is positioned in the upper left, the 4-inch hoop with the symbol of the Eye of the Universe is to its bottom right, and the 3-inch hoop with the Owlk's home moon and the planet it orbits lies to the right of the main story's galaxy and is to the upper right of the Eye hoop. The part of the Eye symbol stitched in the style of the Owlk are the sections closest to the hoop containing the Owlk's home.

All in all, I ended up using 97 different linen threads in this project, including a handful of vintage ones and a highly variegated space-dyed thread that gave me access to 5 different colors and blends between them.

97 colors of linen thread on bobbins are in a bin - every color of the rainbow is represented in multiple shades alongside a lot of blacks, greys, whites, beiges, and browns. 96 of the threads are a single color, though there are slight variations in the dye in some of them, and the last of the threads is a fine thickness space-dyed thread that includes orange, copper, grey, white, teal, and navy tones.

...and just in case that wasn't enough, I actually made this whole project twice, so I could give a copy to the friend who introduced me and my partner to this phenomenal game!

My hand is holding up the second edition of the three Outer Wilds embroidered hoops next to the original set hanging on my wall. They have subtle differences, as is expected with hand embroidered objects.

Embroidered Happy Home Academy mini-pennant

December 20, 2025

I wanted a small embroidery project after spending months on my Northern Sky & Southern Sky quilts, and since I was in the middle of planning a complicated original design that would use a many, many colors, I wanted something that used just a single embroidery thread.

A tiny little embroidered Happy Home Academy pennant would fit that bill and help me use up some of the scrap linen from the Northern & Southern Sky quilts:

Happy Home Academy mini-pennant hanging on a white wall: the base is a deep slightly-teal navy linen with embroidered with gold silk thread. The pennant is vertically oriented and appears to be a rectangle that is slightly longer than it is wide with a short isocoles triangle right below it whose longest side is the bottom side of the rectangle. The design is embroidered in gold silk thread: There's a small house surrounded by a laurel wreath, three 5-pointed stars below it, and the word 'Academy' below the stars. The pennant's side and bottom edges are wrapped in gold silk thread, and there's a fringe hanging from the bottom. The pennant is hung with gold silk thread attached to a walnut-toned wooden dowel that runs through the top of the pennant, and a gold tassle hangs from each end of the wooden rod.

I'm not really sure why this felt like the right tiny thing to make in 2025 - years since I've actually played this game - but I'm excited for the surpise update that's dropping in January!

Materials

  • Gold embroidery thread - I used Soie Perlée Silk Thread in Burnished Gold #677 and needed just under three 16-meter spools between the embroidery, fringe, hanging cord, tassels, and edge wrapping. I was very efficient in reusing scraps in the fringe and tassels and had about 2 meters leftover afterwards, so you may need a fourth spool.
  • Dark blue fabric - I used a scrap of the Inky blue "Newton 260" linen from Merchant & Mills leftover from my Northern Sky & Southern Sky quilts
  • Sulky Sticky Fabri-Solvy Stabilizer - I printed my basic design on this and affixed it to the fabric to embroider.
  • Dark blue sewing thread to match the fabric - This is technically optional, as the stitches just under the rod could be omitted and you could sew it together just with gold embroidery thread instead of basting with thin, matching thread first. I used the linen's matching Gütermann thread.
  • Wood dowel - I used a dark toned, 4mm thick dowel. FYI that some dark toned dowels are unstained inside - when I cut mine down, I had to recolor the end. I used extra wood stain I had around, but a marker would work well enough, too, in my opinion.

Tools

  • Appropriately sized chenille needles - I used both size 22 and size 24 needles. Size 24 is a better fit for the thread size, but a little extra heft was helpful in dense areas so I wouldn't break the needle.
  • Thimble - I prefer a leather one, and it's not strictly necessary, but it was occasionally helpful in areas where there was a high density of stitches.
  • Fabric scissor - I used pinking shears to help prevent the linen from fraying.
  • Embroidery scissor - I suppose this is optional, but I don't like keeping large scissors out by my embroidery projects.
  • Iron and ironing board - Honestly, this project was so small that I used a hair flatiron most of the time because it was less to pull out and put away... even as someone who never bothers to use it on my hair anymore.
  • Small cardboard piece - This is for making the tassels around.

Notes

  • I did this project in little bits so I don't know how long it took me, but likely it was under 12 hours total (including trial and error and making decisions you wouldn't need to make if you follow all my notes on this project). Making the fringe by hand took a big chunk of that time, and you could buy premade fringe or forgo it instead to save time and avoid a really tedious task.
  • I embroidered the main design - house, laurels, stars, and the word "Academy" in script - before cutting out the mini-pennant.
  • I used satin stitch radiating out from the door handle for the home icon, stem stitch for the laurel branches and the word "Academy," closed fly stitch for the laurel leaves, and a very tight ray stitch for each of the five segments of each star from the center of the star to the point. I embroidered with the gold silk thread as a single thread.
Stem stitches make up the branches for the laurel wreaths and word 'Academy' on top of my Sulky Fabri-Solvy template that's affixed to the the inky blue linen which is inside a small plastic hoop.
The first point of the first star made in very tight ray stitch.
The house outline and filled in door are stitched in a satin stitch that is oriented towards the empty hole that serves as the door's handle.
  • I made a rough template for my design on Sulky Sticky Fabri-Solvy Stabilizer and washed it off before wrapping the edges or attaching the rod, fringe, or hanging cord. Sorry, but since it's fan art and not my design, I don't feel comfortable sharing it. To be honest, if I wasn't otherwise interested in improving my proficiency with the Photoshop pen tool, I would have just printed a screenshot of the game item to scale on Fabri-Solvy.
  • Since I was using linen, I gave myself a 1/2-inch seam allowance and cut out the shape with pinking shears. If you don't cut it evenly enough and think about how to fold over the seam allowance so that it doesn't lie flat before wrapping the edges, it will show even more after wrapping the edges.

With the embroidery complete but the Sulky Fabri-Solvy template not yet washed off, I carefully cut out the mini-pennant out using pinking shears and giving it a 1/2-inch seam allowance. This is what it looks like folded over before sewing the edge seams.

  • I made fringe by doing macrame square knots with lark's heads added on one side (the same side) of every knot like one could add a bead on the side (every knot meaning 2 per repeat) with the hitch facing the same direction every time. To attach it to the pennant, I stitched through the loops on the other side where I didn't add lark's heads. There are probably better ways to make fringe - I just decided to try something I thought would work with skills I already knew, and it did!
  • I did not tie or cut off the ends of my fringe before I attached it. I made this choice deliberately so that I could undo knots or add more length as needed, and this turned out to be very wise as I needed much more length than I expected because I ended up able to stitch it more closely together than I guessed.
  • I left my fringe untrimmed until I was otherwise completely done with the project so that I could iron it one more time in its final form before trimming to get the straightest possible edge.
  • I held the gold embroidery thread double when attaching the fringe and wrapping the edges of the pennant. I hid excess threads from the base of the macrame square knots under the edge wrapping.
A long cord of macrame square knots with lark's heads attached to the bottom side next to the in-progress pennant. The lark's head dangles are uneven lengths at this phase because I didn't cut them until I was otherwise fully done with the project, and the base underneath the square knots hasn't been cut short so that I could hide them in edge wrapping.
The fringe is attached to the pennant's bottom edge by sewing through the top side of every square knot - the side opposite the lark's head attachment. The edges of the base of the macrame are inside the edge wrapping to create a clean finish.
  • I braided the hanging cord out of three single strands of the gold silk thread to make it more substantial. I notched the dowel with a scissor before tying the braid on so it wouldn't slip, and I also ended up stitching the square knots I secured in those notches into the wrapped border so they'd stay on the back of the pennant. (One side actually had a third knot on top of the square so the ends both were on the bottom).

The edge wrap finishing even goes around the section where the dowel is inserted at the top, but of course, it only goes around one of the two sides of the pennant to form a opening to insert the rod.

  • I made simple tassels, like so, to hang at the bottom of the hanging cord. I used a long piece of thread for the knot to draw the tassel top together. I ran one side of that piece of thread through the braided hanging cord's end where I wanted the tassel to begin, knotted it, and incorporated the leftovers into the tassel. I tied another small piece of thread around the tassel about a third of the way down to gather it together.
I made tassels by wrapping silk thread around small cardboard pieces and knotting them on the cardboard.
I incorporated the hanging cord's ends into the tassels before gathering them together with another piece of thread about a third of the way down from the top of the tassel.
  • To match the original pennant's design, I used my dark blue sewing thread in a running stitch just under the dowel.
  • I'm overall extremely happy with the result, but if I were to make it again (I will not), I would sandwich a layer of very thin batting between the pennant sides so that the knots hidden inside aren't visible at all as subtle lumps from the back. That said, the lumps are very subtle, and this is at most 0.0005% unhappiness with the project as they won't even be seen when it's hanging on a wall - it just feels a little bad to have finished the back slightly imperfectly!

Here's my favorite villager next to the finished mini-pennant:

A small Fauna character plush near the Happy Home Academy mini-pennant that hangs on the wall.

WWII watch cap crown shaping

December 15, 2025

Like so many other hat knitters, I've knitted the classic WWII watch cap, which is also known as Beanie no. 212, more than a handful of times. (You can find it on Ravelry here and here, respectively.) It's a charming, quick knit that's easy to resize, but I've never really liked the crown shaping on the original.

I've knit a lot of these hats, and only one's had the original crown shaping for the decreases. I'm sharing two crown shaping variations I keep going back to below. I always knit this hat in the round, and my crown shaping patterns assume you will be knitting in the round, too.

Alternate crown shaping 1

This alternate crown shaping follows the 6x2 ribbing of the previous section for the bulk of each round so that the ribbing continues throughout the entire hat.

The 6x2 ribbing continues to the top of the hat.
Three 4-stitch wide knit sections continue all the way to the center of the top of the hat, forming a subtle 3-pointed star.

Written out:

Divide stitches on 3 double pointed needles with stitches evenly divided among the three needles or mark out even sections with stitch markers if decreasing across 2 circular needles or with magic loop.

  1. (k1, ssk or skp, k if previous row was knit or p if previous row was purl until 3 stitches are left on the needle/before the next marker, k2tog, k) x3.
  2. Repeat step 1 until 4 stitches remain on each needle/in each marked section.
  3. Cut and draw yarn through the remaining 12 stitches 2-3 times. Tie off and weave in the ends.

Alternate crown shaping 2

This alternate shaping both maintains the ribbing throughout the crown shaping and accentuates it by creating a sort of three-pointed star with 3 of the 2-stitch-wide purl parts from the previous 6x2 ribbed section. This shaping really only makes sense when making a size hat where the number of stitches is evenly divisible by 24, so I typically only do it on size "small" hats (cast on 96 stitches). You could adjust the needle size and gauge for a yarn that works well at that gauge to make this work for different sizes.

The 6x2 ribbing continues to the top of the hat.
Three 2-stitch wide purl sections continue all the way to the center of the top of the hat, forming a channeled 3-pointed star.

Written out:

Stop the last 6x2 ribbed row 1 stitch early and divide stitches on 3 double pointed needles with stitches evenly divided among the three needles or mark out even sections with stitch markers if decreasing across 2 circular needles or with magic loop. Ensure that each needle transition or marker has a single purl stitch on each side.

  1. (p1, ssk or skp, k if previous row was knit or p if previous row was purl until 3 stitches are left on the needle/before the next marker, k2tog, p) x3.
  2. Repeat step 1 until 4 stitches remain on each needle/in each marked section.
  3. Cut and draw yarn through the remaining 12 stitches 2-3 times. Tie off and weave in the ends.

Additional project notes

  • Needle: US 7 - 4.5 mm
  • Gauge: 19 stitches and 24 rows = 4 inches in stockinette
  • Hats made for me should generally be a small (cast on 96 stitches), and hats made for my partner Matt should generally be a medium (cast on 104 stitches).

Footnotes

  1. Either of these will create a left-leaning decrease, so use whichever one you prefer.↩
  2. Ibid.↩

NYC Bike Rules for Drivers mini-zine

October 21, 2025

After five different drivers, including a school bus driver, aggressively close-passed me in Midwood last night and two of them threatened me just for being on the street, I realized there's a huge gap in educational outreach about bike rules in NYC: drivers. I decided to make a mini-zine that demystifies the behavior of law-abiding bicyclists like myself and helps drivers better understand what to expect when sharing the road:

A handful of NYC Bike Rules for Drivers mini-zines

All text and illustrations in the mini-zine are my own. Many thanks to Matt Denys for help proofreading!

This zine is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, so you can copy and distribute this zine for noncommercial purposes in unadapted form as long as you give credit to me. Gas stations, car dealerships, auto repair shops, rental car offices, parking lots, book shops, restaurants, coffee shops, and other commercial establishments are welcome to give out these zines, too - as long as the zine itself is free!

Check out the NYC Bike Rules for Drivers mini-zine on the web or download the pdf to print here!

An Abundance of NYC Data for the Abundance Agenda mini-zine

August 15, 2025

I reference a lot of different data sources when forming opinions at Community Board hearings and testifying at local public meetings, and since there are so many useful sources, I started keeping track of which ones I used a couple years ago. I decided to make a mini-zine to collect useful data sources for housing, transit, and climate in NYC in one place:

A handful of An Abundance of NYC Data for the Abundance Agenda mini-zines

I couldn't resist giving this zine this punchy title, but friendly reminder that many of us normies have been out here doing grassroots organizing on pro-housing, pro-transit, pro-not-fucking-up-the-planet issues through a pro-good-government, pro-more-government-capacity lens and calling it "abundance" long before pundits inserted themselves into the conversation.

All text in the zine is my own. Many thanks to Jesse Lang, Samir Lavingia, and Geoffrey Thomas for contributing suggestions!

This zine is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, so you can copy and distribute this zine for noncommercial purposes in unadapted form as long as you give credit to me.

Check out the An Abundance of NYC Data for the Abundance Agenda! mini-zine on the web or download the pdf to print here!