Triangles Go Organic

I was going to do something with more integrated colors for a change, instead of segments or modules, but then I saw this piece by knittinweaver on Ravelry: (used with permission)

She is calling it 'Log Cabin Goes Organic.' For those on Ravelty, here's the direct link.

She started a regular log cabin, and then

Okay, anybody who knows me, knows I usually have the attention span of a 5 year old. I just couldn’t see me making more rectangles the same, so I decided to go organic.

Maybe she's my long-lost twin.

She is using short-rows, and just doing a lot of on-the-fly estimating, or, in my terms, conditional knitting.

Well, I had wanted to make a triangular shawl all out of log cabin triangles anyway, since I've been on a log cabin triangle spree, so I couldn't resist trying this. Integrated colors can wait.

Here is my progress so far, with a shoe added for an idea of size.

Like knittinweaver, I usually bind off at each segment, but mostly because I don't care for the needles flapping around. But this time, since with a triangle they are more out of the way, I'm not binding off. This also means I don't have to pick up along the entire segment, which is a time and patience saver. So far it is working out well. 

Here's a closer look at the center

I was adding short rows at different points in a segment, but they didn't seem to show much, so now I'm adding 3 extra rows on one end each time. That has helped, but it doesn't get to the truly organic look yet.

So I went back to the source. Here's a closer look at knittinweaver's piece:

Over and above the fact that she's been more daring than me, I see that she has emphasized the short-rows by making up for them on the first rows of the new color, for a more sudden effect than my middle short-rows.  And finally, she's now adding stripes to really emphasize the shape.

I'm trying for a sort of wavy but roughly symmetrical look, so I'm reluctant to really go wild with the short-rows, but these tips will help me inch closer to the look I'm hoping for.

And then again, maybe my attention-span will run out, and I'll go just as crazy. Oh, the joy of knitting adventure!

And speaking of adventure, here is exactly how much ribbon yarn was left at the end of this one segment.

It made for some nervousness towards the end, but don't you just love it when there is exactly enough?