Casting on in contrast color

Hi there! I’m going to knit the Semper sweater from the Knit Purl Girl. It’s top-down and has a 2x2 ribbed collar. I’d like just the first round or two to be white and the rest of the sweater will be gray. I’ll do the same for the ribbing on the sleeves. Any advice on how to do this? Thank you!

Edited to add: I was planning on a long tail cast on in pattern (k2p2) as Patty Lyons outlined in her book (Knitting Bag of Tricks). If there’s a different cast on that’s neat, stretchy, and not too fussy, I’m open to ideas!

Thanks!

Hello

This sweater has a double folded collar so you won’t see the contrast colour if you only use it for the cast on and a row or two. I like collars with a little contrast colour and have seen a very nice look where it’s a few rows of contrast just at the fold. You might choose to do that instead if you want the colour to show? Or begin with the contrast and continue until just after the fold, this way a little shows on the outside but all the inside is the contrast colour.
Changing colours in rib will show the purl bump colour blip in the next row, you can either embrace the blip and love it or there’s a method where you slip the purls on the colour change to avoid it.
I would suggest working a swatch and see how you feel about the colour change (the blips), you can try a straight forward colour change and a slipped purl colour change in the same swatch and compare the two.

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Thanks so much for your response! And I’m so sorry I forgot to mention that I decided to modify the original pattern by knitting a standard 2x2 ribbed collar (2”, probably) as I tend to get hot in a double-thick one.
I realized this morning that I can start this sweater the same way I would knit a cuff-down sock with a contrast cuff. I was just making things too complicated - no surprise there :slight_smile:

I wanted to mention too, that one method for avoiding the “blips” caused by the purls in a ribbed fabric is to just knit the first round in the new color (instead of the K2 P2), then continue with the ribbing pattern after that. It works really well. So this is my plan. Thanks again!
Sara

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That sounds great. You’re all set to go.
Hope we get to see pics of work in progress and the final sweater.