Years ago, Mike and I bought fractal software thinking we might make needlework patterns from the designs. We learned about fractals through my math-teacher father.

Of course, since fractals are computer-generated, anyone can make the designs (much faster than I can brush my teeth), and before we could say “Mandelbrot Set,” many iterations of cross stitch fractal patterns became available. No need for us to make them, except for ourselves.

Mike was mucking about with fractals recently, so I figured we might do an online tour of them so you can play, too.

You can do some very simple fractal-making here on the CoolMath Web site. All you have to do is crop the image with your mouse, and the program will magnify that area. The color palette changes each time you crop.

Mike’s dragons

To learn something about fractals, check out this tutorial at Fractal Arts. The tutorial suggests free software you can download for further exploration. Watch out, needleworkers, these things are addictive.