Gear to level up your craft and play

Tools of the Trade

Welcome to Tools of the Trade! Here, you'll find hand-picked recommendations for both gaming and cross-stitching essentials. The links on this page are affiliate links, meaning I may earn a small commission—at no extra cost to you—if you make a purchase.

Switch 2 supplies

I recently got myself a Switch 2 - if you’d like to pick one up, here are links to some of the things you might need:

  • Getting a Switch2 itself! Here’s the link to pick it up with Mario Kart World bundled.

  • If you need extra storage for your Switch 2, you need to make sure to pick up a microSD Express card, and getting the correct type can be pretty confusing. Here’s a link to a SanDisk 256GB microSD Express card.

Streaming supplies

If you’re interesting in doing some streaming or creating videos, here are a couple of items that might be worth picking up:

  • If you want to stream or record Switch 2 (or any other console or device with an HDMI output), you’ll need a capture card. Here’s a link to the Elgato HD60 X capture card, which I found to be very easy to set up - just connect it to your Mac or PC via USB cable and then plug your HDMI cable into the “HMDI in” slot, then open OBS Studio and add a new “capture card” source.

  • The webcam I’m using is the Insta360 Link2C camera, which you can get here.

  • I’m using my iPhone as my camera to capture a view of the piece I’m sewing, and to be able to do that you need a tripod. Here’s a link to the one I’m using, which is quick and easy to set up, and does the trick quite nicely.

  • I’m also using a portable rechargeable light as well (link here). This one clips to your phone (or to anything flatish, really) and lets you change the “color temperature” as well as intensity.

Cross-stitching supplies

If you’ve never cross-stitched before and are interested in getting started, you can do a lot worse than buying a kit. The kit I started with sadly seems to be no longer available (it was this one), but here are some other kits I found. Do note that I haven’t used any of them myself, so can’t vouch for their quality:

  • The closest kit to the one I first did is this Hogwarts crest kit. This range also has kits for the crests of the four Hogwarts houses: here are Griffindor, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. For some reason, I can only find Hufflepuff as part of a bundle with all five crests here. Sorry, Hufflepuffs!

  • If you’d like a simpler/smaller starter kit, I found a cute Star Wars kit here.

  • Or you could get an even simpler starter kit with this Mario kit.

  • Kits don’t usually come with an embroidery hoop, but I would strongly recommend using one. Buying a set with different sizes like this one is a good idea, as it gives you flexibility towards different sized pieces.

If you’re interested in working on your own design, you could do a lot worse than checking out FlossCross, which is a free site that lets you create cross-stitch designs and export them in various formats, including PDF. Some of the supplies you may need include:

  • Needles! You want to make sure to use needles that are designed as cross-stitching needles, like these ones that I use, because if you use needles that are too sharp, you’ll find it catching on the cloth and it will not be a pleasant experience. I speak from experience here. 🙂

  • Speaking of cloth, the type of cloth I have experience with is called aida. The “count” you’ll see when you search for aida cloth describes how large the "squares” are. A common starting count is 14 count (like this cloth). If you’re new to cross-stitching, I’d start with this size.

  • I would recommend getting a nice pair of embroidery scissors to trim your threads. I use these ones from DMC, and I’m very happy with them.

  • Speaking of DMC, if you’re buying your own threads I can recommend threads from DMC. As well as being great quality, you will find that the vast majority of designs will give you the color codes for DMC threads. An example set can be found here, but of course the key thing is to buy the colors you actually need.

  • After starting this hobby, you’ll realize very quickly that you’ll need a good way to store and organize all of your threads. I would recommend a dedicated floss organizer box like this one.