Striped scarf, 3 colours

[cds11]

I'm trying to make a scarf with 3 different colours in it for my dad. First I thought I would just rotate the colours every so many rows in whatever pattern I chose. I ended up getting some really really loose stitches (I think because I was constantly changing colours in the same places??). So then I decided to play with just have 3 vertical stripes of colour (so, knitting with all 3 colours at once, as I go along the row), but I'm also getting really loose stitches this way as well.. Is there a trick that I'm missing? I've never tried playing with more than one colour before..

[Jeremy]

Probably the easiest way to change color is to do it at the beginning of a row. Leave long enough tail so it can be sewn in later. Amy has some excellent videos in the advanced section on knitting with two colors.

[vaknitter]

If you are using wool or another feltable animal fiber for the scarf I would measure out lengths of yarn, felt the joins, and then wind it into a ball. I did a scarf for the hubby in his alumni colors and changed colors every 25 rows or so. I wish I had known to do felted joins back then as weaving in all those ends in was horrible.

[cds11]

Don't I wish it were a feltable yarn! Unfortunately, it's for my dad for work... which just so happens to be incredidly dirty, but outside, and his neck gets cold... So I had to pick a yarn that's able to be machine washed...

[Hildegard_von_Knittin]

So then I decided to play with just have 3 vertical stripes of colour (so, knitting with all 3 colours at once, as I go along the row), but I'm also getting really loose stitches this way as well.. Is there a trick that I'm missing? I've never tried playing with more than one colour before..

If I'm reading this correctly, you want to have 3 different colored stripes going the length of the scarf, like this:
123
123
123
123
123
123
123
And not alternating rows of three colors like this:
111
222
333
111
222
333

The easiest way, I think, to do this is to make the scarf lengthwise.... instead of casting on, for instance, 30 stitches and knitting 200 rows with 3 colors in each row, cast on 200 stitches, and knit in one color for 5 rows, then change your second color for 5 rows, then your third color for 5 rows.

(these numbers are examples, I dont' know how that would turn out in real life)

Or, you could knit three skinny lengths of each color and seam them side-by-side.

HTH