My dragon-tastic dragon jacket is finally finished!
I'm happy and also a little bit sad, that I'm finally done with it.
I was told by several people that I should document the process of how I develop my patterns, and not only the finished project... So, I carefully documented my latest project and each step I took - or at least I tried to! You can follow the steps in the slideshow, from the initial idea to digitalization and all the fun steps in between.
Even though I hadn't finished digitalizing the pattern yet, I have already started crocheting. And it looks just as cool as I imagined! I'll keep you updated!
Everything starts with an idea... Unfortunately, my best ideas always come to me at the most inconvenient moments.
In the case of this idea, it happened right as I was falling asleep. At least I still remembered it the next morning and daydreamed about how amazing such a dragon sweater would look.
Shortly before that, I was lucky enough to receive a huge notepad as a gift - perfect for sketching out ideas.
The first draft wasn't bad, but the dragon's head is... lousy?
My second attempt was much better. Once I was satisfied with all the outlines, I tried out different pattern ideas.
The final decision on which pattern to use was left to the person who would be wearing the crocheted piece.
For those wondering why the head is only drawn on one side... I'm "one-sidedly" talented. I used Photoshop to mirror it afterward.
While sketching and designing, I had some fluffy help.
Since not everyone can imagine how the colors of yarn and my strange lines would look in the end, I crocheted a sample piece of the dragon head.
Originally, the idea was to crochet only the eyes and wings in green. However, there were concerns that the dragon might not stand out enough. So, in the last third of the sample, I made the entire dragon head in green and used a different technique for the final few rows.
As you can ;see, an entirely green dragon looks amazing! So, this idea was incorporated into the final plan.
After deciding on the patterns, it was time to focus on the size.
We used an existing sweater as a template, scanned the dragon head and mirrored it, and then scaled it to the desired size.
Next, I printed it out, cut it out, and placed it on the sweater to verify.
Looks good, doesn’t it?
Next came the Herculean task: figuring out where each stitch (front post) should go, to create a cool dragon in the end.
I printed out many, many A4 sheets with my stitch gauge. To do this, I even wrote a script that generates an A4 template I can print as often as needed. Then I taped the sheets together to match the size of the sweater. Afterwards, I transferred the dragon's outline by cutting out my "pattern template," laying it on the paper, and tracing along the edges with a pencil.
Next, I converted the contours into stitches - that part was relatively easy. Afterward, I had to fill the dragon with the chosen patterns... That took quite a bit of time - and even more pencil leads.
And this is what the dragon pattern looks like when I put all the pieces together...
Since this "pile of sheets" isn't very clear and certainly not easy to replicate, I always digitize my patterns. Fortunately, I’ve developed my own small and convenient tool for this purpose.
Digitizing the pattern also helps identify and correct any potential mistakes right away.
This is my beautiful pattern in its digital version... Looks cool, doesn't it?
The dragon's colors are only blue and green - the red in the pattern is just a guide for me and will also be crocheted in blue.
Once I finish my dragon, I will publish the pattern for free on my crochet pattern webpage.
After the planning came the crocheting. It took about three months to complete the dragon jacket.
If you're interested, you can check out my progress in the slideshow.
Instead of just posting the finished crochet project, this time I'm also documented all the steps it takes to design and crochet my own pattern.
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