Knitting question

[to-my-wife.livejournal.com]

I just found out that a good friend of mine has lost the grey and black striped scarf I bought him - AND the replacement one his girlfriend bought him too! So, of course my fingers are itching to knit him a new one.

I usually knit chunky, quick scarves, but I feel like taking my time with this one. I'm going to use some nice thin cotton yarn and 4mm needles. I have a couple of questions:

a) I want to knit it in stockinette*. Is there any way I can knit it so it doesn't look crap on the back? I want it to be reversible essentially. I've heard that you can do 'double knitting' to make both sides look good, but I'm hoping to not have to do anything *too* complicated! Is double-knitting hard? I'm still at that 'I only knit scarves because I can't do anything else' stage.

b) When I change colour, is there any way, again, that you can make it so you don't see that sloppy 'out of place' line of colour on the back, where the change takes place? (I hope you know what I mean). Would 'double knitting' fix this?

Thanks guys, I really appreciate your help! :o)

*Is this a bad idea, as stockinette tends to curl at the edges? I don't want to spend ages on a curly scarf :o/