color/design opinions wanted

[kate_nepveu]

Edit: actually I took it out of storage and am way closer to finishing the body than I thought, so I think I'm going to push ahead with what, I now remember, was a kind of improvised vertical pattern, and see how it ends up.

I'm ready to finally make a big push to finish a large-ish red dragon cross-stitch, but I'm not happy with what I've got so far and am thinking about ripping it out and re-doing it after modifying the pattern.

The pattern calls for using overdyed variegated thread, which normally you stitch one x at a time in rows, so that the color shifts along that row. But when doing the body of a dragon, I'm not really loving the effect--here's a picture snagged from a store website that shows the stripey result, under the cut:



[red cross-stitched dragon with stripey body]

So I'm thinking of freehanding some scales over the pattern, which I would stitch working from the outside inward, in a spiral. I'd probably also start each outside from the darker end of the thread, so that the center would be lighter. (Probably no backstitch outlining them? There's already a lot of stuff going on with the wings and the belly.)

Does that sound like it would be cool? If so, about how many scales across the widest part, do you think? If not, what else might I do to get interesting, non-stripey shading?

Comments

[daidoji_gisei]

In crochet (and, I admit, knitting), that kind of striping is called pooling and depending on things can be good or bad. One of the ways that crocheters avoid pooling is to work with two skeins--you crochet in one direction with the first skein and crochet back with the second one. Could you adapt this to cross stitch?

[bibliofile]

The problem with cross stitch is that the stitches are 2D and don't necessarily follow the line of the body the way they can in 3D/knitting & crochet. If you want a striped dragon, I think you'd do better using two different colors of thread and making deliberate stripes. Which is probably not Kate's desired effect?

You could maybe get a better variation effect by using the variegated thread and doing half of an area (say, the body) at once, then go back and do all the other halves of the stitches. Hmm, now I want to start playing around with cross stitch and variegated thread.

Or does the dragon's body use more than one strand of floss? What if you mixed up the strands, so that the two (or three) came from different parts of the variation?

[kate_nepveu]

It is two strands, so reversing one strand might give a nice blended effect; I'll have to experiment, thanks.

So that's a no on the scales idea, huh?

[thistleingrey]

One could reduce pooling by stitching every other square across the body, then making a second pass, or by making the "rows" of stitches become curves that follow the lines of the body--straight down for upper body, then curved at the haunch--but it strikes me as a bit of trouble. Reversing the strands as suggested downthread now would help and be easier to do.

[kate_nepveu]

I'm trying the curve on the tail, but if I finish the body, step back, and hate it, I might try tweeding the floss, yeah. There's really not much solid body left, I'd forgotten the progress I made (also how fast I can do whole stitches in the hand), so should have a sense soon.

[stinaleigh]

I just want to say that I love your stitching posts. They are inspiring me to work on my own projects. Knitting at the. Moment, but seriously considering getting out the cross stitch too.

Thank you.

[kate_nepveu]

Aww, that's so nice, thanks!

[yhlee]

I am in awe of your dedication--I would never be able to unpick that much stitchery without crying.

I too love your cross-stitch posts. I miss it terribly but I do not have the brain to resume it these days, so gratuitous pleasure it is!

[kate_nepveu]

That's the picture that comes with the kit, above, I definitely didn't finish the whole thing! But I did have all but the tail, bottom feet, and about 1/3 of the widest bottom part done of the main red color, which is way more than I remembered, so yeah, definitely want to avoid unpicking that much if I can.

Thanks for letting me know you like the posts! I'll be sure to take good pictures of the just-completed Christmas present before I hand it over to its recipient.