Fellowship of the Pint: The Swatch

Have you ever made a one week promise that took six months to fulfill? *Nervous laughter.* Yeah, me neither.

Back in January, I shared a blog post about why L&L went silent. You can read that here if you missed it. After we shared our story, Megan-Anne and I took a while to process things, both physically and mentally. We’re in a much better place now. The shop is officially open again, and we’ll be restocking some of our bases in the coming weeks. Even better, we have a roadmap in place for L&L again. But that’s for another day. First, a little bookkeeping:

Mabel the Merciless has selected two lucky winners at random to receive copies of the Official Gilmore Girls knitting pattern book: Robin L. (who believes Rory “should have ditched all the silly fellas”) and Holly L. (who thinks: “She hasn’t met the person yet. She’s too smart for any of the above.”) Your books are on their way to you now! For those of you who didn’t win or live outside the USA and couldn’t even participate, I have excellent news. Today, in this very post, I am dropping a new geekalong pattern!!!

You’re welcome.

The Lore

The year was 2001. Megan-Anne and I were seniors in high school with hot boyfriends, part-time jobs, and an insatiable need to see Lord of the Rinds: The Fellowship of the Ring. And then, like we were living in one of Disney’s corny tv shows, we were faced with the divisive choice of attending opening night or going to the winter formal.

Some of you might be thinking, “well obviously you should do both. Why is this even a story?” But you need to remember the year was 2001 in godforsaken Indiana. The Lord of the Rings trilogy had yet to pave the way for Game of Thrones and Marvel and general acceptance of “nerdom.” (Granted, all of those properties have since succumbed to capitalism and have done their best to ruin their own success, but I digress.) Our entire lives it had been made clear to us that people who enjoyed those types of things were losers. And if we, as women, tried to do it anyway, we were treated poorly by the boys in that community. So when I declared we would do both, it was an extremely subversive choice.

Megan-Anne: People will stare.
Me: People can go fuck themselves.

(I won’t pretend that I forced my friend group to follow through with my plan for the sake of feminism. I did it because I had a strong sense of justice and problems with authority. Being told I couldn’t do something was the fastest way to get me to do it.)

On December 19th of 2001, we left the dance early so we could drive straight to the theater. People did stare at us as we waited in line. It did feel strange to sit in a movie theater in a formal gown. But dear lord was it fun. It was one of the best nights of my life.

Which is all to say that our love of the Lord of the Rings is a deep part of our identity. We accept only one version of the trilogy, and its the extended cut. We did argue over who would get to tell Mabel the Merciless the fun fact about Viggo Mortensen breaking his toe. And we often return to it in times of stress as place of comfort. And so, during these bullshittiest of times, I welcome you to our fellowship.

Fellowship of the Pint

Fun Fact: I designed these charts AGES ago for Tanis Gray but I ended up working on her Nightmare Before Christmas knitting book instead. One chart was meant for a sweater vest and the others were part of a fingerless mitt pattern. Now they’re your socks!

We are kicking off our journey with the project sheet and swatch. You will be able to download the pattern for free from Ravelry and receive automatic updates as more of the pattern is released. If you’re not a member of Ravelry, you’ll be able to come here and download it directly from us. The pdf will be at the bottom of this post.

• 2026 July 12 – Theme Announcement, Project Sheet, and Swatch
• 2026 July 19 – Clue One: It Comes in Pints
• 2026 July 26 – Clue Two: Evade the Nazgul

“Jac,” you may say, “Why not give us the whole pattern to us now, you already shared a picture?”

To which I’d say, “You’ve had one picture, yes, but what about a second picture?” You may roll your eyes at my terrible attempt at a reference, but the point stands. You don’t know what I put on the backs of those socks! It’s a secret. A secret that I will not reveal until I feel like it!

Which will probably be next Sunday if we’re all being honest with ourselves.

Anyway the socks are worked toe-up using smaller needles for the stockinette stitch and cuff while larger needles are used for the colorwork sections using stranding knitting. They feature a short row heel, and come in four sizes: 7 (8, 9, 10)” / 18 (20, 23, 26) cm. I legitimately do not recommend knitting the size 7. The charts will wrap around the leg too much, making it difficult to appreciate your hard work. But someone always asks, so there you go.

Let’s Talk Yarn

We have some handy-dandy kits in the shop for your convenience. The Fellowship of the Pint Socks Kit contains: two beautiful 100 gram skeins of Lattes & Llamas’ Vacation base in “Evergreen Moonbeam” and “Baskerville” and one 50 gram skein in “Elementary My Dear”. Plus a stitch marker hand-crafted by Megan-Anne using a bronze pony, lava rocks, and jade. The pattern is NOT included in this kit, because this kit is for a GAL pattern that is free to download.

I realize that seems self-evident, but I promise someone will buy the kit and then ask me why the pattern wasn’t included. Speaking of questions someone will ask: You do NOT need to buy the kit to participate in the GAL. Free is free, no strings attached.

If you’re planning to use a comparable fingering weight yarn, I can’t tell you the exact yardage you will need for each size. I was a naughty noodle and didn’t track it while knitting. (What can I say, I’m a bit rusty.)

View the Fellowship of the Pint: Project Sheet by clicking the download button below. When you download the pattern from our website instead of through Ravelry here, you will NOT receive automatic updates. You will have to come here and download the next clue every time. Please download it via Ravelry if you are able, so you have immediate access to the clues as they are released and any errata that may appear.

~Jac

The worst part? Someone is still gonna get mad at me because they refuse to read.