I DID IT! I SOLVED THE PROBLEM of the horrible gutter where the rounds end/begin! I’m so thrilled! See photo illustration of my “Midtown Blue”, also with this pattern.

I’ve been making two of these, hoping that sooner or later I could figure out how to make the switch between rounds look just like the rest of it! I did it! :D

(This will be simple and clear, once you’re working on the project, and see what is being referred to. It sounds much more complicated than it is.)

STEP 1: At the BEGINNING of round 3, instead of K1 to offset the design diagonally, slip that stitch, and move it to the other side of the marker -- making it the last stitch of Round 3, instead of the first. (If you are using markers for each pattern repeat, as I did, you have to slip each marker over by 1, anyway.)

STEP 2: At the END of round 3 complete the twist, just as in each other repeat in this round, using the stitch you borrowed from the beginning.

STEP 3: Round 4 is supposed to begin with a purl -- so just pick up a purl stitch (Make1) from the webbing between these stitches, and BEGIN Round 4 (twist) with that. (All is well, but there’s now an extra stitch.)

STEP 4: At the END of Round 4, there is now an extra purl stitch (back end of the last twist from Round 3). Slip it onto the LH needle, removing and replacing Round Marker (stitch goes back to the beginning side of Marker, where it was originally). Lift the other purl stitch (already on LH needle -- the M1 that was lifted from before) over it, and drop it off the end of the LH needle. (Like a bind-off, in reverse.) Back to the correct number of stitches!

Then BEGIN the new Round 1, working the twist with the first 2 stitches on the LH needle -- a K and this decreased purl. Voilà! Everything is back to the way it was. The pattern is undisturbed, the flow is smooth, and the juncture looks like all the other columns.
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Making this in heavier yarn, larger needles. Making only 9 repeats of pattern @ round, to compensate. Lovely softness, although there is the usual problem of Caron yarn spreading when you try to do anything other than ordinary knit and purl. And this skein has had a couple of clumsy splices, so far, which is annoying. Soft, clean-cut result, though, so I think my friend will like it. ;)