I wanted to steek the front edges of my sweater to allow me to cut off the myriad of ends the stripes left.  I was a little worried though, so I swatched the whole thing.  As hilarious as it sounds, at times like this, I feel like a master painter making a detail practice painting ...  it's the same kind of thing, right?  Practice makes perfect. ;)

I knit a whole swatch of the stripe pattern and even did the bottom ribbing.  Then I steeked the "furry" edge of the swatch.

So pretty on the top!

So pretty on the bottom!

I tested out several different stitch patterns to secure the yarn ends.  I  have to sew my steeks to secure them since I'm not using wool (which would stick to itself).

More test stitching.

And the bit I left without any stitching at all ... which I then tugged on a little, just to make sure I really did need to stitch the steek.  The answer was a resounding, "Yes!"

Next I tested out adding the front edge ribbing.

I tested out picking up different numbers of stitches.  On the left is way too few picked up stitches and the right is way too many.  I pulled out one of the sides and finally found a number that was "just right", which is 3 for every 4 rows.