Can you believe that next week will be the end of the 2016 Geek-A-Long?! I can’t. I don’t even know where this year went. Throughout December we will be be dropping great big surprises about the 2017 GAL, showing you how to do this year’s join (spoilers: we crocheted it!), AND telling you all about the prizes up for grabs in this year’s raffle. Not only that, I’m hosting an MKAL for a treat-yourself December accessory. The KAL is designed to finish and block before the 24th if you want to give it away for Christmas or Hanukkah, but I think you should keep it for yourself. More MKAL details will be posted Monday November 28th, and the first clue will release on December 5th.

This week I’m excited to bring you the last guest post of 2016. This week we were honored to have Dan Stefanidis, Street Fighter hero and the author and artist behind Manifest Destiny here to tell you about his favorite game. See you Friday for Gilmore Madness!

 ~ ~ ~ HERE COMES A NEW CHALLENGER ~ ~ ~

And it’s the Street Fighter Square, featuring the franchise’s Dragon Punching Protag, Ryu!

Street Fighter (lets be real we’re talking about Street Fighter II) has been a gaming mainstay since 1991. Whether you plunked down your cold hard circular cash in an arcade for bragging rights or plugged in the cart to your console to bet on who got what chores that week, you may have spent hours battling the World Warriors. And, with it’s many follow-up iterations, you have plenty of brawling buds to pick a favorite from. My personal characters have been Blanka(SFII, because cheap lightning was the only way to beat my older brother), Fei Long(Super SFII), Ken (SF Alpha), Dudley (SF III and IV). And this years iteration, Street Fighter, has been a blast as well. I’ve been Rocking Karin (Oh-ho-ho-ho-ho!) and Rashid (I’m sorry friend!).

There’s no respawn timers. There’s no “maps.” Two players enter. One player leaves. Watch here as Daigo Umehara parries every hit of Justin Won’gs super move to take the round!

This year has been FULL of incredible events with professional commentators and a large prize pool, culminating in just a few weeks at the Capcom Cup at the Sony Playstation Experience. Players from all over the world are competing. For a taste of what’s coming, check out these Top 5 moments from the North American Qualifiers:

The last thing I want to leave you with is an amazing Oral History of Street Fighter II put out by Polygon a few years back. It’s worth seeing how this game even came to be!

Who’s your favorite Street Fighter character (besides Skullomania)? Which Iteration of the game has been your favorite?

A huge thanks to Dan for sharing the Street Fighter love! You can tweet your finished squares at him at @elbasunu and follow his work on Google Plus.

Post Edited for 5 Year Anniversary

This post has been edited to add an updated version of the Ryu Street Fighter pattern to celebrate five years of geeking along. The graph is the same, but the pattern now includes more information. You can download the new Street Fighter Ryu pattern by clicking the link. In addition to the updated format, we recommend using different colorways than the sample was knit with so that it will match the Street Fighter Ken pattern that was added in 2018 to compliment this square. Instructions for both knit and crochet are now listed in the pattern. This now concludes the edited portion of this post.

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
“Back for more, Sagat?” -Ryu

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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.