2018 Geek-A-Long: Dragonriders of Pern

We are in the final month of the 2018 Geek-A-Long, and with just a few fandoms left I was pretty pumped to see that the Dragonriders of Pern climbed up the leaderboards and onto the blanket before the year was out! It always feels kinda weird to have a Geek-A-Long blanket wrapping up, but this year feels more surreal than most. I’ve got a lot going on right now. We had a fairly significant situation with Mabel (she’s OK, no worries) and I pulled her out of daycare. Having her home all the time is hard on me, and Jac has stepped up to help with her, but it’s hard on her too. So I guess this is my way of apologizing for not being very active here lately. I wake up every Monday with the intent to write at least three blog posts, start a writing a book, knit four sweaters, and clean the house. Most weeks I take the win if I wear pants everyday. ;)

We’ve been working extra hard on dying, and just sort of focusing on mental health. So the end of the year completely snuck up on us. The 2019 blanket is well in hand, and we’ll be announcing the theme and yarn in December. But part of me isn’t ready for this year to be over. So it seemed kind of perfect to do Pern this week. This is a series that will never really be done.

Bookwyrm nominated the Dragonriders of Pern to this year’s blanket, saying:

The Dragonriders of Pern

1. Because dragons
2. When I was young I thought the “thread” the dragonriders fought was yarn
3. It’s a science fantasy series, and that doesn’t happen enough
4. There are plenty of strong women in the series (strong men, too) who will do what is right instead of what is easy
5. In addition to being a great book series, there are also a board game and at least two video games (one for the Commodore 64!!) based off the series

OK, so first of all, that comment about the “thread” being yarn broke me. I first read it when she wrote it nearly a year ago, and I still crack up when I think of it. Can’t you just see lengths of mohair streaming down from the skies and ruining everything it touches?!

I feel like I want to summarize this series, but that’s super hard to do. There is just SO MUCH of it. But if you’ve never read the books, do yourself a favor and read at least a few of the first books. There are two schools of thought on starting your journey into Pern: Read them chronologically or read them in publication order. I fall into the publication order camp, but honestly, read them in whichever way makes you happy. If I could decide for everyone though, I’d start you all with Dragonflight. It was incredibly influential for me.

If you’ve been following the Geek-A-Long for a long time, you have likely noticed that my childhood was sort of weird. Among other things, a lot of the stuff I was into was forbidden fruit in my house. To this day I don’t know what my mom’s hang up was with sci-fi/fantasy novels, but the rules about not having them were strictly enforced. So most of my nerdy development happened in secret. That’s made me into an objectively weird adult. Most of it is funny now. Once she told me, “the devil would get in through the TV,” if I watched Buffy. And in early middle school when every other girl in my class was into Goosebumps books I couldn’t have them because she didn’t want me to “get the wrong idea.” And that’s comedy gold in it’s own way. Anyhow, by the time I was the right age for Pern something had to really be worth it to sneak that kind of contraband home. But a friend of mine at church, Carol, was obsessed with the Pern books and said I absolutely had to read them. And so began a year long literary tryst. There were 15 books out then (there are 28 now!) and every other week or so she’d smuggle one to me at church in a paper bag, and I’d sneak her back the one I had finished.

I want you to have the full visual on this, anything less would be cheating you. Carol was the poster child for “good kid.” She was practically Amish in her sensibilities. And there we are in the youth room exchanging books in the shadows like some sort of poorly organized drug ring. And you know what? Lessa was worth it. That first book totally changed my life. Lessa is the OG of passive-aggressive, but totally admiration worthy bitches. She is committed to destroying Ruatha Hold to avenge her family. She basically does it by throwing her hair up in a messy bun, donning her most comfortably yet scrubby looking sweatpants, and glaring them all into submission. She’s got psychic powers, and clearly that helps her along, but she uses them mostly to make other people kind of suck. Not in major ways, she just makes everyone there kind of crappy at their jobs until the whole place falls apart. Plus, dragons and time-travel.

This week’s square features the banner for Ruatha Hold. It honors Lessa, who fought for her family’s right to rule the hold, but gave it all up when the greater good needed her to travel back in time and convince other Holds to come forward in time to save the world and also to wrap up a weird but oddly satisfying time-travel explanation for their absence.

Whether you’re knitting, crocheting, or cross stitching this square, you can download the Dragonriders of Pern pattern here. Instructions and charts for both knit and crochet are listed in the pattern. When you’re finished making it, don’t forget to Instagram your squares at us @lattesandllamasyarn with the hashtag #geekalong!

If you’re having trouble with double-sided knitting, we have a how-to video here and a tutorial on crochet here. Want to hang out with other people making the blanket? You can find moral support in the Geek-A-Long group on Ravelry here.

~ Megan-Anne

In Ruatha you fought to live — or you fought to die!

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If you enjoyed this post, please consider making a donation to Child’s Play Charity. Here is a direct link to our official donation widget benefiting the charity. Please help us raise $1,000 this year. No contribution is too small! Wanna make your donation go even further? Lattes & Llamas will donate $1 for every skein of Geek-A-Long Yarn purchased. Ask your local yarn store to carry GAL Yarn or get it through our website.