I’m making my way through the back and I’ve got a number of issues coming up.

The first is the transition between the colors. You can see here that for the first transition I just finished one color and started the next.

Even though the colors are close the tradition is harsher than I’d like. For the next one I’m going to start alternating with the new skein when 1/4 of the yarn is left which will hopefully create a smoother translation. I think I like this a bit better…

The next issue is moving from the back to the front. At the rate the yarn is being used I think there will still be a good bit of the gradient yarn left when the width of the back is finished. I’m trying to figure out how to ‘turn the corner’ so to speak to the front so that the gradient is allowed to flow. If I keep going with the zigzag pattern I’ll run into a problem – when working this in short rows I’m going to get disjointed sections within the stitch patterns. So that makes me wonder how I could transition for the short row bend from back to front by using a different contrasting stitch pattern….maybe garter stitch? That would look pretty cool with the gradients in short rows. The I could leave that garter short row triangle to stand alone and start up with the zigzag to work up the front of the garment.

Here’s a little sketch of how that would flow. This is what I use walks with my dog for – I mentally ‘verbalize’ the problem and troubleshoot different ways of making it work and flow. This is the part of my job that’s the hardest but the most satisfying when it works. You come up with something totally unique rather than a standard design-by-numbers approach.