Mix & Match (lots of pictures)

Wow have I really not written a post since Thursday 2/12? Well, I attempted a post on Sunday 2/15, but then it was dinner time or something and I stopped. So to pick up where I left off on Thursday...
The harf is moving along, to the neglect of all other projects.
When I started this photo shoot the puppies where nowhere to be found, but you can see how it ended up.
I guess Samson decided I wasn't paying enough attention to him. Actually, he was the one not paying attention to me. Both times we went out to play fetch he ran off in the corner by himself. Fine! Be that way. At least Baru plays with me. (Wait, what was I doing playing fetch on Sunday? I was working at the store Sunday, this doesn't make sense.)

Two Tones and Textures
Since this is the prototype, I've been experimenting with some different ideas.
I wonder if there are designers out there who have ideas spring forth fully formed and they just knit the final project in one blow. They are probably the people who spend more time in the sketching phase. I can't draw to save my life, so I just plunge in.
(Huh, I could have sworn I wrote more than this, oh well.)
Ignore the fact it changes from orange to yellow. That is simply a matter of I ran out of orange.
An intentional switch, which you might not be able to make out, was from stockinette stitch to reverse stockinette stitch. Which is putting the bumpy side on the outside. If you can see those faint lines, they are caused by the switch.
I also went from a garter stitch and ribbed edge on the leading edge to a 4 stitch cable. I then added a 4 stitch cable to the back edge. I'm really digging the cables and I'm glad I thought of it.
The only problem is that the edges are curling in now. Which I expected on the back edge because of the stockinette stitch base, but not so much on the front edge. Very annoying.

Combating Curling
So I took it to the store with me on Sunday to get opinions. D admired it and we think if I re-established the ribbing next to the cables that might help with the curling. I also threw two knit stitches back on the interior side of the cable panel. It does frame the cables nicely.
I didn't have enough left to knit to really test the theory, but it is showing potential.
I made some of the changes by dropping stitches and picking them up again with a crochet hook, but I couldn't do the entire length because of that lifeline I put in (the black and white yarn you can see there) but never used. Not sure why I ran it now. Anyway.
I was only able to put in one knit stitch on the front edge, which I think looks off, so I'm probably going to add stitches to the front edge in general so I can have a k2,p2 pair there.

Progress?
Despite knitting my little fingers off on Saturday, I felt like I didn't get anywhere and still had many rows to decrease before I got back to my original number. Oddly, I don't remember the increases taking that long. Maybe I worked the increases in more sporadic chunks of time so it felt faster, but spending most of the day Saturday on the couch really let me see how far I got.
Regardless, on Monday I finally reached the magic number.
I had planned to then work a portion of the scarf part (the ribbed section at the bottom of the orange half) on this end to match the first end, but I'm so over the prototype at this point.
Really, I think I've (oh my gosh, am I ever going to finish this post? I was working on it during lunch and had to stop. I have to get it wrapped up before bedtime) accomplished/learned what I can from the prototype and I'm ready to get started with the actual knitting.

Oh, I give up, I'm posting this thing already.