Geek-A-Long
2015 Geek-A-Long: Torchwood
Aug
Hey guys, it’s my birthday! I’m spending it recovering from a wild* night out at the drive-in (we saw Mission Impossible and Trainwreck) with breakfast at my favorite diner with my favorite people, followed by a date with Netflix. Yesterday during the day I binged on Pivot‘s Veronica Mars marathon, and I can only assume that was an intentional birthday gift from them to me. Frankly, I like to imagine that everyone quietly celebrates National Megan-Anne Day. So please feel free to join me in my binge-watching festivities, and let’s see how many of us can watch a whole season of Torchwood!
If you are totally new to the Whovian Universe, I recommend starting at the beginning on this one. We meet Captain Jack Harkness in the first season of the Dr. Who revival (The Empty Child-2005), and he makes appearances with both the 9th and 10th Doctors. So if I’m talking about Torchwood, and you don’t know what I mean, do yourself a favor and start with Chris Eccelston’s Doctor Who. Once you’ve seen through the fist two years of David Tenant, you could switch over to Torchwood, but really, you may as well just finish Doctor Who through the current season first. You deserve Doctor Who.
After parting ways with the Doctor, Captain Jack joined the Torchwood Institute and heads up a team of ass-kicking scientists. Torchwood has both a UK and an American version, and I prefer the UK show, but they are both pretty great. And as much as I will always hold a torch for Captain Jack, I really had Toshiko Sato in mind when I designed the square.
Jac and I disagreed over which Torchwood scientist most deserved the square space. Owen, Toshiko, and Ianto all deserve to be honored, so rather than deciding who wouldn’t be on the square we decided to deviate from form on this one, and honor the whole group. The square features the Torchwood Institute logo, and I think it looks really cool.
GET THE PATTERN
Whether you’re knitting, crocheting, or cross stitching this square, you can view the Torchwood Institute logo pattern by clicking this link or the download it by clicking the button below. 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!
Want to hang out with other people making the blanket? You can find moral support in the Geek-A-Long group on Ravelry here. If you’re having trouble with double-sided knitting, we have a how-to video here. If this is your first time encountering the Geek-A-Long, you can learn more about it, the history behind it, how to participate, and why we do it for Child’s Play Charity on this page.
EDITED TO ADD: This post was edited on May 2, 2021 to update links and upload a revamped pattern format, which includes more information. You can read our post about the revamp here, which also includes three other Doctor Who inspired Geek-A-Long squares.
~Megan-Anne
*Somewhat less wild than last year now that I’m in a family way, but funnel cake and staying up past 11:30 is my kind of wild.
If you enjoyed this post, please consider making a donation to Child’s Play Charity. Here is a direct link to our official donation page 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.
Hi! I had a question about crocheting with the Geek-a-Long. I know that with knitting, you cast on and work with double the stitches of crocheting – 118 vs 59. So does this mean that if you crochet the whole blanket, it isn’t double sided? i.e. the sides aren’t opposite colors, like they would be in knitting? Then what does the back side of it look like? Are there lines of yarn going everywhere like what happens when you knit a fairisle pattern? Also, do you use half the amount of yarn for crocheting these than you would if you knit them? Thanks so much! :)
I use the tapestry crochet method, so the carryover yarn is hidden under the sc stitch. This method makes both sides clean and “right”, but the colors will not be inverted like it would be with double-sided knitting. The image will only be reversed. Oddly enough, since crochet eats a lot of yarn, both methods (tapestry crochet and double-sided knitting) use roughly the same amount of yarn. If you’d like to see what the opposite side of crocheted square looks like, check out one of the prior weeks where crochet is used. I always post a side by side image of the front and back of the square.
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