how to match up thread/floss?

[ktbye]

not sure if this is in the right place, im sorry if its not...but this is my 1st time posting

anyways ive been eyeing the big pokemon cross stitch for a while but I want to do it with Mario games that my daughter and I have played(donkey kong,Mario bros,super Mario,super Mario 2, super Mario 3,dr Mario,super Mario world,super Mario kart,super Mario 64,Mario kart 64, new super Mario, new super Mario 2). The thing is ive only ever done kits in cross stitch/needlepoint so this will be my 1st ever on my own pattern. So buying floss/thread is completely new to me...is it hard to match the stuff you can get at micheals with pictures?(I think its dmc?) is there a free program that will match colors to the thread??

thanks so much for taking the time to read this!!!

[Servotron]

Yep, you can get a free program to make your patterns, it's called KG Chart and you can get it from here: http://www.iktsoft.net/kgchart-en/

It's what I used to make the Epic Pokemon pattern with. I would suggest that you make the image in a graphics program (I tend to use paint.net, which is free) as you can use layers to position your pictures. And make sure you save the picture as a .png file rather than a jpeg as this will cause problems.

[no_need]

In addition to what Servo said, I'd strongly recommend taking a copy of the image you're working from to the shop with you when you go to buy the floss and just sense check the colours manually - KG Chart is usually pretty good at picking colours, but it's not foolproof. I've had more than one pattern where it decided to completely change one of the colours and I didn't realise until after I'd shelled out for the floss...

[Kamfer]

KG chart also has a tendency to pick more colors than you really need. I've had a few tries where KG Chart is determined that I need both black, dark grey, dark brown and dark green on an area that is just black in the original picture, or it wants to throw in a few different shades of white along the edges. So no_need's advice is absolutely a good one.

[ktbye]

thank you guys so much!! ill have to dl that pattern maker thing, I didn't even know they had one of those...I was going to just make a pattern in excel so itll save me a lot of work! lol