This year for Pi Day I'm doing a free cross-stitch stitch-a-long with a nonogram twist!
Every day from March 1st to 14th, a new nonogram will be released on mathysphere dot gay (with two nonograms released on the first day). Each nonogram is one part of a larger design; if you stitch them together into a grid, the full piece will be revealed!
Details on fabric etc after the cut----
The finished piece measures 75 by 75 stitches, and should be stitched on 14-count or 28-count fabric (do NOT do 18- or 16- or any other count for this one-- trust me!)
On 14- or 28-count fabric, the stitched design measures around 5½ inches (~13½ cm) on each side. Including a margin around it, I recommend using a piece of fabric no less than 8 or 9 inches (20-23 cm) across.
The design uses only one color, so make it a fun one! You can pick any thread and any fabric, but colorful ones are recommended 😉
There are 15 pieces in the design, each measuring 25 by 15 stitches. If you're someone who likes gridding your projects, it may make sense to mark those dimensions on your fabric.
If you played last year's Pi Day nonogram set, then I'm happy to report that I've spruced up the code quite a bit since then-- the UI is better, and I've added a way to highlight errors if you mess up. Pretty proud of that!
The first two nonograms will go up on Mathysphere dot gay on March 1st, 2026, with a new nonogram every day after that; if you'd like to get an email reminder as each of the nonograms go live, you can sign up for that 📧here. There's also an option to be notified for just the first one.
If you've got any questions, drop me a line, and-- happy stitching!!
Self contained nonogram game I've been working on the past couple of days, thanks to everyone for the suggestions of nonograms to make! Taking a break for the rest of the day and then tomorrow I'll start getting the code together for the Reticulum/LoRa part of this where I send the whole page over the radio
If you have any inkling that you like this game due to it's art direction, then likely you're wasting your time with this review, and should just get to playing it. Charm Studies is not only free, but only an hour long, less if you are familiar with Picross type games.
Charm Studies intrigues me in the sense that it's not only a Picross for beginners type of game, but it certainly helps lend Picross to more visual novel games. I've seen this done with another game, Murdered By Numbers, and overall I'm a really big fan of it. Picross does feel like it lacks an award at times, and with the way this game goes off to explain the little pictures you make while passing it off as studying is really charming.
As someone that is a bit of an avid picross player, I wasn't really challenged with this game, and while I don't think that's a bad thing it certainly can leave many picross fans adrift. There are no where near as many puzzles or difficult arrangements, but the overall mechanics used for Charm Studies helps beginner players understand picross far better than any previous game I've played. If anything, I'd argue this is for fans of picross to send to their friends so they can start getting into it too. The visual novel setting, and quirky characters make for a nice set up, and can really help show why Picross is so fun.
Play It Here: https://nomnomnami.itch.io/charm-studies
My pico-8 drawing app that I did all my daily doodles in last year is now public! Actually, everything that used to be Ko-fi supporter exclusive is now public! This includes a small game I made early last year, a collection of nonogram (picross) puzzles I desgined, and my sketchbook pages + daily doodles from 2022.
https://ko-fi.com/iamsako/posts
https://iamsako.itch.io/