DIY: turn a quote into a knitting pattern

want to knit a statement sweater with your favorite quote?

...Fear no more: there are several tools that let you do that.

I decided to make one of my favorite quotes "PARDON MY FRENCH" into a knitted sweater.
...because I "french" a lot, and because {real} life will take me to France more and more. (and my "real French" is rather rusty).

... so: here it is!

how to make a knittable (and machine knittable) pattern in few easy steps:

I wrote my quote using Word, then saved it into a PDF file, and use Picasa to "flip" the image in order to make the pattern suitable for machine knitting.
For a hand-knitting pattern, there's no need of the "flip".

Then use a free online generator, www.stitchboard.com to convert my .JPEG file it into a pattern:
make sure to follow the steps and check how many stitches wide you want your pattern to be... check your gauge swatch!
The pattern from the online generator worked out perfectly for the italic font, but I had to modify manually some letters of the "pardon my" part (using the Excel method) You can download both files here:

PARDON MY - chart

FRENCH - chart

... And then gather all your patience and knit!
This is an intarsia project which I had HIGLY underestimated... and made me "frenching" quite a bit at some points... but totally worth it!

Life is too short to wear boring clothes!!

xox, d.
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