Ravi's Argyles

So, Wool Candy went down a couple of weeks ago. I might have mentioned it in passing, but it was really just too painful to think about so I haven't mentioned it since. I think I'm ready to talk about it now.

It was all Dreamhost's fault. No, it really was. I've taken down the blog with my own stupidity before (or, I might call it spunk or chutzpah, since it was with the thought that I'm smart enough to figure out how to update my own Wordpress, dang it. I wasn't.), but this time? No, it was all Dreamhost. Apparently, they're as dumb as I am when it comes to moving domains to new servers. Only, I only have to worry about taking down my own blog -- not hundreds or thousands of other blogs, too.

Dreamhost sent Tobin an email saying they'd moved all of our domains from one server to a nice, shiny new server, and that we should check to make sure everything was okay. Just a formality, you understand. Everything should be fine, all routine, blah blah blah. HO no. Tobin goes to coziahr.com, I go to woolcandy.com, and we see nothing. Just blank index pages.

In the immortal words of Carl from Aqua Teen Hunger Force, "Oh good".

24 hours and several panicked emails later (Dreamhost notoriously has no support phone number. I suppose they just don't want to hear it from hundreds and thousands of disgruntled customers. They know how much they suck, but they're CHEAP), and woolcandy, coziahr.com, icannhascheezburger.com and all of our other domains are still down with no explanation.

So, in steps our friend Ravi. Ravi does some webhosting for some of his friends. He offered to host woolcandy.

I said, "You are my hero. I owe you some handknit socks."

And he said, "No problem. Happy to help. And I like socks."

So, he and Tobin spent the better part of the day getting the candy back up and running, and after ironing out a few hiccups, she's all better! AND Ravi totally has a support phone number. And support AIM. And he can smoke some really damn tasty ribs. Really, the man knows his meat. Hush. Get your mind out of the gutter.

So, I'm knitting Ravi some Ravi-gyles. He's so an argyle guy. I dyed up some Green Apple, Blood Orange, and Brulee Marzipan Merino, and got to work on these seamless Argyle socks. (Ravelry)

I love argyles. Love. Them. I think they're so fun, and have endless potential for color combinations and playful additions (like the Arrrgyles chart for the hipster pirate in your life), good for boys and girls, men and women and everyone in between. The thing is? I hate intarsia. With ever last knitting fiber of my being. I hate the little bobbins and fiddliness and the many tangling strands. Hate.

So I just about swooned when I stumbled upon this short-row formula for seamless argyles. You knit each diamond, one at a time, in order, starting from the top and working your way down the foot. It's almost like entrelac, as you build the tube from square to square. It's genius! And no intarsia!

There are still quite a few ends left to weave in.

But it helps that I only have to work with one color at a time, instead of keeping track of a chart and twisting two colors together across the row at the right time. These are turning out great, and I'm already planning my next pair, for Tobin, since I stalled on his Arrrgyles almost as soon as I started them on our honeymoon last June. Oops. Stupid bobbins.

My First Sale! and Pie! Socks

I love my mother-in-law. I know, right? I'm so lucky. She's amazingly energetic and enthusiastic and fun. She wanted to be my first customer, so the night I launched, she called Tobin at work to ask him to help her buy some yarn online (she doesn't shop online much). She picked Pie! --yet again, a woman after my own heart. One of my favorites!




Oh, did I mention that she doesn't knit?

So, I offered to knit her socks out of her purchase. This, obviously, is not a sustainable business model... nor a service I anticipate offering to many... but it did have something of an ulterior motive in this case. I love Pie! I wanted to knit with it... is that so wrong?

It took some doing to find just the perfect pattern for Pie!. I swatched and swatched, trying pattern after pattern that was fine. Adequate, even PRETTY, but not The One. Yes, I'm one of THOSE knitters.

Part of me is a process knitter -- I love the rhythm of stitch after stitch, the process of knitting that always teaches me a little something, the process of designing something, sorting out how to do it, and then trying it out. It's the process knitter in me that starts projects all the time, spending hours sketching and swatching and calculating, casting on,  and then abandoning them to the UFO pile as soon as I'm past the "interesting" bits.

But then, the other part of me is one of those super anal crazed knitters who has to have something JUST SO. Some little mistakes I can let go, mask in the lace or just ignore. But some of them... OOOOH. They're like this itch in the back of my brain. At first a little tingle that's easy to dismiss -- I can tell myself, "Oh, it'll be fine. Just keep going." But the itch remains. And it gets worse. And worse and worse until RIP. I can't stand it anymore and I have to do anything I can to fix whatever it was that was bothering me NO MATTER WHAT.

So it was with the Pie! socks. I wanted something lacy and pretty, something interesting to knit, but not mind-bogglingly complex... something easy to wear but interesting to look at... I tried Hedera, which is one of my favorite patterns. It was nice, but not great. I ripped those and tried Cedar Dancing, by Cat Bordhi (Ravelry) because I thought they'd make nice slipper socks, what with the lace pattern carrying down the back of the heel. But they were just... augh. Too big... Too weird... Too... not RIGHT. Ripped! I tried the Rushing Rivulets, also by Cat Bordhi (Ravelry) (it was Knitterday, and I had New Pathways for Sock Knitters with me...), but the lace pattern got lost in the deep berry tones of the yarn. FROG! Loksins crossed my mind... several patterns from Knitting Vintage Socks, by Nancy Bush...

And then, I remembered a sweet little pattern I'd knit for my mom last year, for her birthday (Raveled here). Coupling, from the Summer 2007 issue of Knitty.



Lacy, but not too ostentatious.

Continually interesting to work, but not brain-blowing.



And very, very pretty in Pie!, if I do say so myself!



I highly recommend this pattern. It has yarn overs on every round, but the lace pattern is an easy-to-memorize 8 rows. These are knit toe-up, with a reverse-gusset heel that fits my weird, high-instepped feet oh-so-perfectly! The lace is also VERY stretchy, so could fit a variety of foot sizes. If I knit these again (which I likely will, since I've done it twice now and still love it), I'd make the foot a bit smaller, by having fewer sole stitches to allow the lace across the instep to open up more.

I hope she likes them! I packed them up yesterday and sent them off to her. Thank you, Ann! For your purchase... and for letting me knit Pie!.