Several people, both here and on ravelry, have asked if we’ll be doing a knit along for the book.  The answer is of course we are!  I thought I’d take a moment and outline some of the details here.

As you may perhaps have noticed, there is a distinct geographical bent to this book.  We’re taking shameless advantage of this for the knit along.  The Silk Road is really a vast east/west trade network covering several thousand miles.  People and goods traveled both ways (east to west and west to east) and we’re going to structure the knit along in a similar way.  We’ll have one track starting in the west and taking the northern route to the east, and a second track starting in the east and taking the southern route to the west.  A picture helps at this point!

See Gördes way over there on the left/west?  And see Khotan way over there on the right/east?  Those will be our starting points.  The easward track will go Gördes, Kazak, Heriz, Serab, Yomut, Mashad, Salor.  The westward track will go Khotan, Mood, Afshari, Nain, Joshaqan, Senneh, Uşak.  This two track approach also means you’ll have a choice of which sock to make each month.  And no, we won’t be paying attention to whether you always follow either the eastward or the westward tract, you’re welcome to flit back and forth as it suits you!  So, the schedule will be:

Feb: Gördes or Khotan

Mar: Kazak or Mood

April: Heriz or Afshari

May: Serab or Nain

June: Yomut or Joshaqan

July: Mashad or Senneh

Aug: Salor or Uşak

Now, for a bit of the mechanics.  The official ravelry group for the knit along is here.  There are a few others that have sprung up in other places (which is awesome) but this is the one that Cooperative Press and I are doing, so it’s the only one I’ve got any control over.  And because I know there will be questions, I’m going to try and swoop in with some preemptive answers.  Yes, you’re more than welcome to do both socks in a single month if you happen to be in love with both of them.  No, you don’t have to use the same yarn or color as in the book (though of course you’re welcome to).  And, perhaps most importantly, yes, there will totally be prizes.  We’re still working out the particular details for that though, and we will have to keep you in suspense just a bit longer.

I’ll come back tomorrow and tell you about our first month’s socks.