Stumped at the yoke

Ah, stumped. Yes, thanks, OfTroy (pleased to meet you!), but this is not a "how do I do this" stumped... This is an Artistic Crisis.

I've got the bits joined together, and I can knit a few rows, but then I have to decide the Big Question: Do I put the inspiration first, or do I just try to make a beautiful sweater, that may or may not actually represent the thing that made me want to make it in the first place? I don't want it to be such an "in-joke" that only the recipient and I will know why on earth the sweater looks like that! But somehow I have to get that one clue across...

And the horror is, I can't show you the inspiration, because then the person connected with it could see, and the surprise would be gone. But I think it might look funny if I went too literal, you know what I mean? No....

And, it's hard to take pictures of tendrils!