To knit or frog? That is the question

Well I am making good progress, but I can't decide if it's the way I want it or not.

This project is my first attempt at stranding, so I am trying out some different ways of holding the yarn.

Normally I am a continental knitter, and not a particularly fast one (I think I'm about 33-36 stitches per minute for the really crazy among you who care about such things - I read Elizabeth Zimmermann say she was about 45 and she thought she was not that fast.. ha! that sounds fast to me)

I can hold both yarns in my left hand and pick them each individually, but I find I am having to often let go of them both to readjust them. I can hold one in each hand, and pick the pattern and throw the background. This is also workable, but slow. I'm just not much of a thrower. I guess I need to practice throwing.

I can't decide which method is better at this point.

But here's my dilemma.

I know that you need to carry the background color over and the pattern color under, that's what I've been doing. The problem is I think I should have switched them in this case. I'm afraid what I'm calling my background isn't looking enough like a line.

(excuse the overexposed picture my DH took)

Can you see how the black outline is broken and not that smooth?

Maybe I should make a swatch of the pattern each way (but wah, I don't want to.... and can you make a swatch of just 1 repeat? Do you just pull the yarn back across? ) I definitely would rather frog than finish the project and not be happy with it.

I really can't decide what to do with it. I'm a little more than half way done with the stranding part and then it's an easy project to finish, just plain stockinette.

decisions, decisions...