Geek-A-Long
2017 Geek-A-Long: Artemis
Sep
Planning and executing the Geek-A-Long requires a lot of planning. The day after we launch the first square of the year, we have a planning meeting and bounce ideas off each other to decide what the theme will be next year. We brainstorm and deliberate most of spring and then spend the summer arguing over which fandoms we’ll commemorate in yarn. Once that’s done we pick a yarn and a color palette. I make a spreadsheet with the it broken down by week with the date, fandom, the colors, and who’s writing the post. There are also check boxes for whether I’ve designed it and if Megan-Anne knit it. Then, we spend September through December checking off those boxes. The spreadsheet lives in the company’s Dropbox where I upload the graphs, and eventually the completed patterns and photos. We weren’t always this organized, but as we’re starting to check off those boxes for the 2018 Geek-A-Long, which just so happens to be its fifth year anniversary, we have it down to a fine science.
At least, I thought we did.
The squares live in the studio, which is located in Megan-Anne’s walkout basement. 90 percent of the time, I don’t see the finished squares until the week of when I photograph it. I’m not sure why I photograph them week to week, but I do. It helps keep it fresh in my mind I guess.
Can you guess where this is going yet?
Before I left the office on Friday to drop off some orders at the post office on my way home, I opened up the plastic bin marked “Current GAL” and routed around for the Artemis square. (Megan-Anne and I design and knit them out of order, so they’re all just thrown in there.) Guess what I didn’t find? Yeah, the Artemis square. Somehow the box got marked as done even though it wasn’t.
I called Megan-Anne, who was in New Orleans at the time, and asked her why she was trying to kill me. I was freaking out. My double knitting skills are not great. It takes me forever and my gauge is all wrong. There was no way I’d get it done in time. To which she replied:
It’s fine. I’ll do it when I get home Saturday night and give it to you at Alena’s birthday dinner Sunday. It’ll just have to go up late. It’s not ideal, but it’ll get done.
I breathed a sigh of relief. Crisis averted. Or so I thought.
No, you don’t need to adjust your computer screen. That’s Mansion Hideout as the complementing color instead of the scheduled Mutant Town. I guess that’s what happens when you pull an all-nighter. You glance at the spreadsheet, see the letter M, and assumes it’s the wrong color.
Megan-Anne is planning to re-knit it so I can update the pattern with the correct photograph and the right square will go onto the blanket, but it’s hilariously tragic to me. We had a serious discussion about putting out the square on Monday or Tuesday, so she wouldn’t have to pull an all-nighter, but we’ve never put it out late. Late in the day maybe, but never not on a Sunday. Part of me regrets not insisting we do that, but neither of us wanted to tarnish our record.
In a lot of ways, I suppose it’s fitting that the square was done in the wrong color this week. Artemis is a complicated woman and she’s gone through some changes over the years. Artemis Crock was born and raised in Gotham City, which isn’t the best place to grow up, but it’s even harder when your parents are the assassins, Sportsmaster and Huntress.
During the Golden Age of DC Comics, Artemis Crock went by the name Tigress and was a villain who had run-ins with Hawkgirl. In the New 52 comics, however, Artemis became a member of the Young Justice instead. I haven’t read it, but she’s featured in The Culling storyline.
The Artemis I know and love is from the cartoon Young Justice. Her life is a hot mess. Her dad is totes evil. Her sister is totes evil. Her mom is in a wheelchair recovering from being evil. Eventually, Batman and Green Arrow step in and help Artemis stay on the straight and narrow instead of taking the villain road. Good ol’ Bruce, pays for her to attend Gotham Academy. And after Artemis puts her father’s training to good use (heh heh) to save Kid Flash, Green Arrow recruits her as his new sidekick.
Artemis is kick-ass and always ready with a witty and biting remark, especially if your name is Kid Flash. She also has an aggressive and argumentative attitude that she uses as a defense mechanism to hide her real self out of fear of being discovered as the child of villains. (Batman and Green Arrow tell everyone she’s Oliver’s niece so the other heroes don’t get weird about her parents. This totally backfires on everyone eventually, but it’s the first step to her joining the Young Justice.)
And while Artemis makes Katniss Everdeen look like an armature, what I love about Artemis is the friendship she forges with the other members of Young Justice, especially Zatanna and Kid Flash. Honestly, I could write a 5,000 word essay on Artemis and Kid Flash’s relationship, but it would be riddled with spoilers. Just know that it’s fantastic. For those who have seen the show, season 2, AMIRITE?!
Whether you’re knitting, crocheting, or cross stitching this square, you can download the Artemis 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.
~ Jac
When are you guys going to finally go watch Young Justice so we can nerd-out about it together? Season 3 is in production and is set to release in 2018, and I’m planning to have a party when it finally comes out.
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