2016 Geek-A-Long: Pokemon

Our house is home to Pokemasters. Pokemastery is taken very seriously around here. Poke-husbandry is discussed on a regular basis (NOT JOKING) and passing on pokeknowledge to future pokegenerations is a major responsibility. I’m not sure how the topic came up once, but when the pocket-monsters were being discussed, Jac pointed out that not having Pokemon be a full acronym was a real waste. If there is one thing she cannot stand for, it’s a failure to use a Buseyism, when one would be appropriate. So she made her own:

People Obsessively Keeping Every Monster Oh Noes!

We’re all pretty proud of her for that one.

fromthehightower1 nominated Pokemon to this year’s blanket, and although it didn’t make the final leaderboards, there was just no way we could do this blanket without giving it its due. There was an alternate square released with a pokeball in 2014, even though we weren’t able to fit it onto the actual blanket that year. Sadly, with a only 48 squares per year for us to design on, we can’t always catch them all. ;)

Well we agree with you, fromthehightower1, Pokemon needs to represent on the 2016 blanket! With a current pokequest happening at home thanks to all the free mythics being given out to celebrate Pokemon’s 20th anniversary, this seemed like the perfect year to let Charmander out of his pokeball for a while. My husband has been actively collecting the cards to get the special pokemon. About a month ago he asked me to swing by Gamestop on my way home and grab some Mew cards. I asked why he needed more than one:

One is for me, and the other is for Mabel. She will inherit a great Poke-Kingdom.

I laughed at that, but in retrospect, yarn and pokemon really aren’t that bad of an inheritance. She could do way worse. Now I imagine him standing in front of a 3 ring binder full of poke-decks and telling her that, “All the Mythics the light touches will someday belong to you!” He will do this in a booming dad voice, and in my imagination she is duly impressed.

Also, and I know this is off topic, I’ve put it at the bottom here as it’s sort of spoilery: Do you watch Game of Thrones? If you do AND ARE CURRENT, did the scene with Hodor make you feel differently about Pikachu only every saying “Pika”? For me, at the end of that episode, Pikachu’s story line in my head got really dark.

Whether you’re knitting, crocheting, or cross stitching this square, you can download the Pokemon (Charmander) pattern here. Instructions for both knit and crochet are listed in the pattern. When you’re finished making it, don’t forget to tweet or instagram your squares at me @Doctor_Llama and Jac @jac_attacking or 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
Kevin still mopes about not getting a Hoopa during the Holidays.

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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 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? Louet Yarn is donating 50 cents for every skein of Louet Gems Worsted purchased this year to make a Geek-A-Long blanket. You can get Gems at your Local Yarn Store or through Louet’s website. Just remember to mention the GAL at check out.