Look Ma, No Blips!

Some of my designs use I-cord. I like it as an edging because it gives such a nice, clean look, and it's a great way to make buttonholes. I generally prefer to think about the placement of buttonholes after a garment is completed and it can be tried on, and I-cord allows for this to happen. I like the way I-cord buttonholes sit there invisibly until you open them up for use. However, anyone who has ever tried applying I-cord in a contrasting colour knows that when applied from the right side of the work, little colour "blips" tend to show, like this:

See them there on the underside of the I-cord? Actually, you're looking at the wrong side of the work, because one solution to this is to apply the I-cord from the WRONG SIDE. That's what I did for Trellis. (Just igonore the unfinished steek begging to be tidied up.) The result is that you get a narrower I-cord on the right side, but I like the look of that for this project.

There is another alternative, for anyone who's wondering, and that is to utilize the late Joyce Williams' trick of adding a yarn over when the I-cord is applied from the right side. You can go here to find out more. Why didn't I do this? Well, I experimented with it and found that in this case the edge didn't seem quite as tidy as the first approach. Knitter's choice, right?
Our non-winter continues, with frisbee players on Cricket Field instead of X-country skiers,

huge waves crashing onto the shore instead of ice sailboats skimming over the lake,

 

and grass even starting to turn green.

What can be next? Spring bulbs? (I'm not complaining.)