Pattern resizing question

[elekdragon]

I have a pattern, and I am interested in reducing the size by half. So, for example, currently the item is 40x20 and I want it to be 20x10. I can't go with smaller count cloth due to sight issues, so I am hoping to resize the pattern to make it smaller.

Does anyone have suggestions on how to best go about shrinking a pattern?

Is my only option to just completely redo the pattern by hand and try to keep the same look?

Anyone have experience with resizing a pattern?

Comments

[ex_pippin880]

I resized in Photoshop and then painstakingly compared the original to the half size and fixed it up so it looked decent -- but that pattern was quite large, so it wouldn't be as painstaking for yours. :)

[elekdragon]

Well, there's 20-some patterns I want to resize, so it's still a bit of work...

So you mostly just eyeballed to get it looking right rather than skipped stitches or omething? How did it turn out in the end?

[ex_pippin880]

Yeah, I had to do a bit of pixel work rather than just relying on the resize. I don't have that harddrive plugged in at the moment so I can't show you any decent comparisons, but the originals were all like this, and then after 50%ing and fixing it up, it's like this.

You could just let Photoshop or a pattern program 50% it for you but it's not going to be perfect, especially at such a small size to begin with.

[elekdragon]

Thanks for the info! This looks like it'll be another big project for me to tackle, then. The patterns will need a lot of touch-ups.

[explorer0713]

Do you have a pattern making program like PCStitch? - Or there are several decent free ones online you can download, such as KG Chart. There are also several online pattern generators you can use without downloading anything.

With them, you could scan in the picture and then dictate the size of the pattern, number of colors etc. Would that be possible?

[elekdragon]

It's a pattern to begin with, rather than a picture, so I'm not sure that would work. Would the pattern programs read the lines as something that would need to be included in the pattern?

[explorer0713]

Oh, yes, a computer program would interpret grid lines as part of the pattern. It would be a big ol' mess.