Bad Ass Dragon Sweater- The Beginnings

After taking measurements from a favorite store-bought sweater and ordering “the softest and fluffiest yarn ever,” I’ve finally settled on a motif – dragons!  I wanted something to wander up the front of the sweater but didn’t really want anything floral or too sweet.  This is where Pinterest comes in really handy!  I’ve been collecting intarsia and color-stranded patterns there and browsed through them to find this lovely cross stitch dragon.  He was pinned from indulgy.com so I have no idea to whom I should attribute this gorgeous artwork, unfortunately.  This dragon was way too large to fit my sweater so I started free-handing on knitting paper in a rectangle that would fit my sweater front.

My first attempt produced a dragon that had a lot of line and little fill.  I was afraid that with the super fluffy yarn, he would get lost and he would look like scribbles on the sweater front.  So, I filled him in and came up with a more solid dragon that I’m now using in the sweater.  I think this new design can overcome the fluffy yarn, still be seen, and the eye can tell it’s a dragon.  If I were more confident in my sleeve-cap design abilities, I would write up a pattern in multiple sizes to share.  However, I’m not confident in designing with the set-in sleeve but please feel free to use the dragon chart in your own favorite sweater recipe!  (Of course, for personal use only, please.)

I’ve run my numbers and have cast on for this thing.  I’m super excited!  Dragons plus the shape of my favorite sweater plus the “softest and fluffiest yarn ever” should equal one bad ass sweater!  Maybe it’ll be done in time for the premier of Game of Thrones?!? 

I’m using a mix of color-stranding techniques and intarsia techniques.  I’ve never had to do this before but it seems to be working out.  There’s only one or two strange-ish stitches on the front that I think I can live with.

Below, there’s a peek at the back: Anyone else had to knit with a mix of these two techniques before?  And, because I’m not sure how much yarn to cut for my intarsia yarn butterflies, I’ve just left the whole ball of yarn hanging off the back.  This slows me down a bit because I untwist the lot of them each row.  Maybe I should just cut them and add new as necessary.  That would probably be much more efficient.

Here’s a close up of the sweater piece.  You can definitely get a feel for the fluffiness of the yarn.  And, you can see my little gnome helpers!  They are available in my Etsy shop, if you’d like some for yourself.  They really are a delight to knit with!  I love them.