Triangle Wrapping

I tried something new last night, other than attempting yet again to go to bed at a decent hour. It didn't happen and then both kids were up at 2:30 am for various reasons so I ended up in SuperGirl's bed with both of them, her coughing and Little Guy trying to decide if it was worth it to continue sleeping. Hubby wasn't involved like he usually is (he tends to SuperGirl) because he only works 2 1/2 days this week and Monday was going to be a mad rush; I at least can take a nap and Ph-i-l doesn't mind.

So anyway, I had been knitting away at LOLA's sock all afternoon yesterday and reached a stopping point due to needing to know how much longer to make the foot. That was fine with me because I was socked out and working with those little Lantern Moon Rosewood #1 Sox Sticks (even though decadent) were making my hands shake. I needed something bigger to work with for a while so I didn't end up snapping something in half. The only other project in progress is the wrap and I wasn't feeling that urge to FINISH-QUICK-RIGHT-NOW and I was relieved because I really want to enjoy that thing. I'm learning so many new and interesting techniques (ways and what happens depending on the pick-up stitch you use, bobbles, mitered squares, a really interesting stretch of triangles done in one piece, garter for texture, how some blocks draw in tighter than others, etc.) and even though some of the blocks seem to go on for a while they don't take FOREVER and I'm really enjoying how I'm now able to notice which will be the right side/wrong side simply by reading the stitches and getting a visual in my mind. That's something I never thought I'd be able to do due to me being so visual. Fabulous experience. Make this wrap again? Not anytime soon but it has really helped me get over my pattern anxiety.

I started on one of the last blocks that isn't attached from the beginning to the wrap-in-progress; it's knitted separate in one piece and joined later. It starts with (1) knit front and back increase, knit to end, (2) knit next row, alternate rows until there are 40 total stitches, making a right triangle. Then, and this really confused me in the beginning but I should learn to trust patterns and the fact that most of the time they do know what they are doing, you start with the first stitch, knit front and back, ssk, turn. Turn? What about the others? I read ahead and noticed there was no reference to separate pieces, in fact it was told to strictly be done in 1 piece at the very beginning, and there was a mention that this would be triangles fitted together to make the long block. But that was about it. I took a deep breath, shut my brain off, and started knitting. They were right. It does make triangles. There are some notes I am going to make where the person could have been a little clearer (one step says "knit back" and it's a little confusing because she means knit only on that row back to the other side, not knit in the back of every stitch, or at least that's what I think and it worked out) but other than that I feel really good about the new thing I learned. So far I have the right triangle and this is making a triangle branch off it's side (think geometry where 2 triangle fit together to make a square and apparently this is what is going to happen repeatedly for this block) and I can't wait to work some more on it. The only problem with that project is it has grown so much it's not small enough to tuck in my purse and work on while sitting in the drive-thru at the bank. That hasn't stopped me before though...