Draw a dragon for my christmas sweater!

[dangerprawn]

Hello all you artistic playgrounders! My mom is awesome and is knitting me a sweater as my christmas present. I convinced her to let me put something fun on there, like a dinosaur or a spaceship or something.

We went to the yard store today and I picked out a nice sweater that had a tribal band design thing going across the chest. I thought "Hey! Wouldn't it be cool if instead of that tribal band there was a dragon breathing fire?" Of course it would. But there was no dragon stitching pattern to be found in the store.

Unfortunately I don't draw very well. Even with computer assistance. It's not pretty.

So I was hoping someone here could help me out. I have the dimensions of the area and have prepared a sample graphic of the basic concept I'm going for.


http://i804.photobucket.com/albums/yy322/dangerprawn/sweat1.jpg

Width: 61 stitches (30 centimeters)(about 12 inches)
Height: 25 stitches (about 10 centimeters)(about 4 inches)

I'm pretty sure my measurements are correct. Either way, each gridbox in the sample picture is a single stitch.

I'm hoping that someone will take pity on my poor drawing skills and make something that looks clean, smooth and rad...and doesn't look like trogdor's bastard cousin.

[Quincunx]

Is this a card for a knitting machine? I'm going to pop by the bookstore later today and see if the machine knitting book's still in stock, but if not, I'll freehand something for you later today. Also, are there any technical restrictions we have to beware of--specifically, can we put two dots on a diagonal or do all dots have to be adjacent to another dot?

[EDIT: For testing and general usefulness, a blank grid:]
http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u231/Quincunx_GitP/Fabrics/knittinggrid.jpg

[dangerprawn]

A Reply! Woot!

Are you asking me if the picture you posted is a card for a knitting machine? I dunno. The picture I posted was just something I made in paint shop pro. In either case the sweater is going to be made by hand. Maybe that answers your question.

I'm not really aware of any technical restrictions, though I can ask my mom about it. She mentioned that it would be an easy pattern to do because it's a different color than the sweater and it's an overlay? over stitch? Basically she said you knit the sweater, and then you go back and stitch in the design.

She said she would email me the picture of the design, so when she does I'll post it here so you can see what I mean.

[Quincunx]

I overlaid the grid on a dragon already made out of outlines and swirls and it was nothing but confusion--I'll put it up as an example to other artists of what NOT to do. This needs to be done in blocks of color(stitches) and not rely on outlines.
http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u231/Quincunx_GitP/Fabrics/knittingdragon1.jpg

This is a much better attempt, using the simple outlines of an OotS-style dragon.
http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u231/Quincunx_GitP/Fabrics/knittingdragon2.jpg

http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u231/Quincunx_GitP/Fabrics/knittingdragon3.jpg

The machine knitting book had been sold. Would've passed it along to you if it hadn't. (Also I don't know if machine knitting designs, which are dots on a grid, would be useful to hand knitters.) There are some knitters on this board who will hopefully take a look into this thread. . .also who was it that made geek-worthy designs out of those melty beads. . .people who think in pixels.

Let your mom know that this is a very nifty idea!

[dangerprawn]

Ooooh...I like that OOTS dragon. Nice! But it looks like there's too many....pixels? stitches?

The dimensions need to be 25 stitches tall by 61 stitches wide.

[Quincunx]

The grid is of the specified size, but the pattern goes all the way to each edge. Every fifth stitch is bordered by the blue lines, every tenth stitch by the orange ones--that's not the usual color convention for blocks of 5 and 10 but curse me if I can remember what the convention is. If the design needs to have a one-stitch border clear of stitches, that can easily be done.

I don't know how long knitting the sweater will take, but please remember to post a picture here when it's done!