Rohirrim!

Eomer: Now is the hour! Riders of Rohan! Oaths you have taken, now fulfill them all, to Lord and land! 

I am super proud of the detail of this pattern!

I came rather late to the Lord of the Rings fandom.  While some of my friends had read the books in elementary, I only started reading them in high school.  I blame "The Hobbit", which to this day I honestly find to be a very slow read.  Anyhow, I was almost finished reading the Fellowship when they announced they were making a movie of it...which the timing of forevermore attached me with a certain stigma in the Geek realm -- those who are "only in it because of the movies".  It is unfortunate that such elitism is still present amongst many nerds today, when we should be instead celebrating our common nerdiness, regardless of when a person discovered their love for a fandom.  In fact, my own sweet sister, Naomi, had never seen Star Wars until a couple of years ago, when I sat her down and played all six episodes for her.  (The original three first, of course.  No sense scaring her off with Jar Jar Binks!)  I still love her dearly, though.

Rohan has always held a certain charm for me, probably since I never really grew out of that phase every young girl goes through when they're obsessed with horses.  I got on my first real horse when I was 9, and you'd be hard-pressed to keep me away from them ever since.  Most of my job experience and marketable skill-set has to do with tending large farm animals, mainly of the equine variety.

Eomer, nephew of the King of Rohan, is one of the few men I would gladly follow into battle.  He is honor-bound, loves his sister dearly, and is willing to face impossible odds for what is right.  Plus, being portrayed by the *gorgeous* Karl Urban doesn't hurt.  Rohan is a kingdom that -- though rustic and rural -- values their horses, and bases their entire socio-economical structure upon them.  Sign me up!

A truly drool-worthy Captain of Horse!

This square was slightly more intricate in its design, as I had to modify one of the Rohirrim banners to fit my allotted scale.  I first tried to recreate the flag of Rohan, but it did not go well.  It may actually be included in some sort of blooper-reel of failed patterns at some future date.  All in all, I think the pattern I devised in the end turned out rather well.  It's also a tattoo I'd like to get, though not quite so pixelated.

Rohan's flag

The White Steed of Rohan

Given that my husband, Kishi, is not the Lord of the Rings fan that I am, I offered up the end pattern before it was completed.  I was about a quarter of the way through, but we'll never know if he could have guessed the design on his own.  I'm a little too soft-hearted sometimes, it seems.  I'll have to make my next square a doozy for him.

Arthur finds knitting as relaxing as I do

This is one of the first patterns I worked with that has a definite right and wrong side, since it's asymmetrical.  Each row on the pattern is worked from either left-to-right or right-to-left, alternating.  You just need to keep track of which row you're on.  Since the flag of Rohan is a white steed on a field of green, that's the side I'm going with as the 'right' side.

The finished piece

The Rohan pattern is available here.