Not all Who Wander are Lost

“Not all who wander are lost”

I am always a little sad when a series of movies comes to an end as the movies based on the J.R. Tolkien books recently has.  THE HOBBIT has always been among my favorite books and Peter Jackson broke the book up into three movies – The Unexpected Journey, The Desolation of Smaug and The Five Armies.  

I am not ready to say goodbye to Bilbo Baggins yet so, once again, I am reading The Hobbit and delighting in J. R. Tolkien’s delightful writing style.

It has been many years since I have hosted a sock knit-a-long but I have designed a sock to commemorate the dwarves wandering journey through the dark forest of MIRKWOOD.  I would like to invite you to wander along with me over the next month as I release the pattern progressively on Sunday afternoons.

“Not all who wander are lost”  I will not leave you abandoned without help along the way.  With each clue I will provide helpful links to knitting techniques required to execute those clues.  Even if you do not want to tackle knitting a sock right now you might enjoy watching the process unfold and you may discover, as Bilbo did, courage to try something new and exciting (addicting).

The sock will be knit top down on double point needles or 32″ circular needle for magic loop method.  The design will be a traveling vine which reminded me of the vines in the movie scenes.

I have chosen Sweet Georgia Tough Love fingering weight sock yarn in a beautiful shade that further reminds me of Mirkwood Forest.

Each Sunday afternoon (MST) I will release the clues starting next Sunday, February 1.

The tools you will need to come along as we wander through Mirkwood together:

Yarn:
1 skein of fingering weigh sock yarn

Needles
US #1 (2.5mm) or size needed to obtain gauge. Pattern may be knit with 5 double point needles.

Notions
Removable pins or  stitch markers

Gauge:
Approx. 8 sts = 1” in stockinette.

I hope you will join me on this wandering journey!  

There is no need to sign up but should you choose to join me I would love to post photos of your journey or link them here to the blog.

Now it is time I return to my book and forget everything else just as Bilbo did whilst listening to the music of the dwarves.  And like Bilbo I, too, ‘shall be swept away into dark lands under strange moons, far over The Water……..’