As of about half an hour ago I have reached the end of the center chart for Fire Thief: 

The chart is quite pleasant to work, now that I put the time in to get it constructed correctly. Thanks again to JC Briar and stitch-maps.com. 

Over the weekend I bought beads:

I also spent some time with construction paper, scissors, and tape, and I think I have a sense of how I want the shaping to work: 

I don’t really think there’s any way to know other than to work and see how it comes out. The white paper one in the foreground is the closest to what I think I’ll end up with.

There are eight repeats of the center chart, each of which divides into four arms, leaving 32. This is a number that pleases me. 🙂 I didn’t so much plan it that way as notice it when I was starting to think about how to divide the segments between the various ways of working the expansion chart. 

Next up is to do a tiny bit more chart work to make the transition from the center to the expansion, and then start working and see how it comes out.