Surprise Surprise Surprise

I'm just about to switch from knitting to digging in my stash, but I wanted to show you what I have been playing with this morning. Purdy, ain't it.

As I am moving along, I am playing with stripes. I'm debating if this is going to be simply a striped pink sweater or striped pink sweater. If I use more of the plain pink, I get one look, and if I try to go evenly through the sweater with both colours, but for the plain colour emphasis on the cuffs and ends areas, I get a distinctly different look. I'm not sure where I am going yet, but the journey is interesting.

One of the things I have found (new to absolutely no one but me) is that you get two very different looks of striping depending on which side you are going to call the right side.

I looked at the instructor sample at the store, and noted that they had finished the sweater as if the decrease stitch was done on the wrong side (the side you wear against your skin) I have no idea if this is what is called for, no idea if it matters at all, but I think they did it because when they used that side, they get neat, clear divisions of the start of the garter stitch ridges and a neater looking corner.This is the look from the decrease and colour change row side, the side where all the action happens. You see how the first garter ridge shows one stitch side of the ridge in one colour and one stitch side of the ridge in the other? The change of colours looks as if there is no stop and no start, it just happens. If your goal is seamlessly blended colours, this is what the look you want. You can see the active side of the slip one, k2, psso corners. But how does the other side look?

This is what the same row of garter ridges looks like from the other side, the knit only row side. See the clear defined ridge? This is the look I am after. I want the ridge on the outside to look sharp, well defined, to have a whole ridge appear in one colour, crisp and clear as a summer day (a very, very pink summer day)The decrease corners will look like this. Its shows less of the bulk of the two stitch decrease and hides it. All you see on this side is the magical change of direction.

This second side is what I will be using as my outside, my 'people will see me' side. Think about that as you debate which rows you want to start a second colour on. Do you want crisp colour changes on the side showing the bulk of the decrease, or do you want crisp colour changes on the side showing only a change of direction?

No matter how you do it, it will look great but like many things in knitting, attention to detail can really change the finished look of your project.