2014 Geek-A-Long: The Princess Bride

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This post was NOT supposed to be about The Princess Bride. While I adore the movie and recently bought the bookto read, The Princess Bride was actually supposed to be released as the week 46 GAL square. Now, you might be saying to yourselves:

But, Megan-Anne, why does it matter that you announced The Princess Bride as the week 44 square in several places on the internet after posting a super cool spoiler pic, which you’ve been holding onto for months? Just roll with it and make the original week 44 square number 46. Problem solved!

Oh, if only it were that easy, gentle readers. You see, Jac photographed all of the squares ages ago, and almost every single picture she took of The Princess Bride contains spoilers. To make matters worse — or better, if you consider the fact that we’re already hard at work designing the 2015 GAL blanket — the joins are done and I just finished knitting the border, so Jac can’t take new pictures. Therefore, this week, the pictures of the square will be sparse. Instead, I was forced to flood this post with picture links of Princess Bride merchandise I’d like for Christmas.

hint. hint. nudge. nudge. I suppose when I open my presents this year I’ll find out if my husband reads the blog…

Hands down, The Princess Bride is my favorite 80’s movie. I would even go as far to say that it is in my top ten movies of all time. It has everything: fencing, fighting, torture, revenge, giants, monsters, chases, escapes, true love, miracles… Doesn’t sound too bad, right?

Designing this particular square was an opportunity to take a dip in lake-me and improve myself. I don’t recall drawing up most of the squares, but I very clearly remember working on this design at Starbucks. Actually, I did the designs for almost all of the squares at a Starbucks, but that’s besides the point. For this one, I knew exactly what I wanted it to look like. I could picture it very clearly, and it should have been a quick wham-bam-thank-you-Dread-Pirate-Roberts. I don’t know if it was a combo of stress and distraction, or just a general artistic fail, but my first few runs of this one were bad.

This was one of the last ones I put together and at the time I was under a huge amount of stress regarding my med school applications. (I’m still stressed about them, but at least now it’s a different type of stress.) I was not in the best head space for dealing with my own imperfections and it took a lot of will power not to freak out right there in the middle of the coffee shop. I called Jac, she talked me down, and I did eventually get the chart drawn up. I like to think I’m better for it.

Princess Bride

© Megan-Anne of Lattes & Llamas, 2014

Needles: Size US6

Yarn: Cascade 220 in 2 sharply contrasting colors.

Gauge: 10 sts over 13 rows = 2″ x 2″ square. Final square is 45 sts by 57 rows.  Please note that in the written pattern I instruct you to knit the rows above and below the active color chart.  These rows are shown on the chart as solid color rows above and below the design.

Download PDF of the color chart Princess Bride. Cast on 45 sts for each side of knitting (with two strands held together CO 45, for a total of 90 sts on needle).

Work 2 rows of double-sided knitting (knit the facing sts and purl the back sts across). Note that the first row is a right side row.  You may choose to work the opposite color for the first stitch of each row (I do this), which will keep the edges closed. Alternately, you may choose to knit them without doing this and seam the sides when putting the blanket together. There is no “right” way to do this. It is really just what you are more comfortable with.

Follow color chart over next 53 rows in double-sided knitting.

Work 2 rows of double-sided knitting. BO.

Don’t forget to tweet or instagram them at me @Doctor_Llama or Jac @jac_attacking with the hashtag geekalong, so we can all oooh and ah together. We even have a fancy new GAL Participation Button you can put on your blog or your Geek-A-Long posts. You can grab the html out of the side bar or find it here.

If you’re having trouble with double-sided knitting, we have a how-to video here and you can find moral support in the Geek-A-Long group on Ravelry here. We’re even raffling off some sweet prizes for our members at the end of the year! You can learn more about it in the group or on the GAL Benefactors page.

~ Megan-Anne
My first choice school followed me on Twitter, but hasn’t invited me for an interview. I guess they just wanna be internet friends. Sigh.

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