Geek-A-Long News, Patterns
2018 Geek-A-Long: Caffeinated
Jan
This year, in bold defiance of expectations, we threw out the Geek-A-Long rule book and are including some non-square designs in place of the usual GAL posts. Every fourth week, we will release a premium pattern that was inspired by one of our favorite squares from years past. Check out the Squares page for the complete schedule. The premium patterns will be released on Ravelry for $6.00 each with $1.00 from every sale getting donated to Child’s Play Charity. But for you, because you deserve it, they will be free! The Geek-A-Long post on premium pattern day will contain a coupon code to get the pattern free on Ravelry. Just come here, grab your code, and you’ll be all set to download the pattern. So, with no further ado, I present the first pattern in our Geek-A-Long line: Caffeinated.
You can get your Caffeinated shawl pattern for free by clicking the link below and entering the code COFFEEISLIFE at check out.
Inspired by the very first Geek-A-Long square, the Caffeinated Shawl is made of squishy, luxurious brioche and strips of double knitting featuring Caffeine and Dopamine molecules. The original square, and first ever Geek-A-Long post can be found here. I’ll be honest, looking at that post from 2014, all I can think is:
Wow. That was a million years ago.
Maybe it’s something about the transition from my 20s to my 30s that makes it seem like so much longer than four years ago. I was 29 when the first Geek-A-Long* square came out, and I think that I’ve changed a lot in that time. When I made that first square, the caffeine molecule summed up all my hopes and dreams for my career. I was going to be a Doctor, probably some kind of pioneering Rocket Surgeon. I was in my last year at the Drexel College of Medicine Post Bac program and gearing up to take my MCATs and apply to med school.
I realized the other day, when I was thinking about the shawl and how we got from that first square to here, that I never really explained how things ended up for me. I didn’t wind up in medical school, but there is more to the story than just that. Drexel was a miserable experience. I’m not one to get all regretful, but I wouldn’t wish that experience on anybody. I made a couple of really great friends, but that’s all I can say for that program. Drexel left me in a bad mind-space, and I didn’t bring my A-game to the MCATs. I did okay. If I’d have applied broadly enough, I would have gotten in somewhere. But I didn’t do well enough to get into any of the schools I really wanted to be at. After dealing with the ego-smashing rejection from all my top choice schools, I took a swim in lake me and decided to look at other doctoral options.
At that point, it was well into 2015 and things at L&L were going well. In June of 2015, we launched our yarn line with Vacation Yarn. The current Vacation Yarn evolved a lot from those first colors. We quickly switched to a higher quality wool, and the yarn is a little finer than the original twist, which was more of a heavy sock weight. But I digress. Anyhow, we launched our yarn line and literally just a week or two later, I found out I was pregnant. I was waist deep in PhD program applications, juggling an infant yarn company, working full time, and now growing a tiny human too. I’ve joked before about how I operate on the Men-In-Black 36-hour day, but something had to take a cut. Even if I had 36 hour days, I couldn’t have kept up with everything.
The pregnancy was a surprise. Due to some preexisting conditions on my part, we were told we couldn’t conceive. We had planned on having a family through adoption after I was done with school, so Mabel was a welcome surprise, but still a surprise. I decided to put off my applications for a year to focus on Lattes & Llamas and creating life. But when Mabel arrived, I had a hard time dealing with things. I haven’t talked about my postpartum depression here before, but I struggled a lot her first year. I put on a good Facebook front, but the truth was that I cried everyday and felt horrible. I got help, had Jac and Kevin here supporting me, and am now in a WAY better place. Mabel the Merciless turned two last week, and now that I’ve dealt with my shit I’m loving motherhood.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BebOEQQHw9l/
So that’s how four years just completely got away from me and why grad school has been the last thing on my mind for a long time. My friends that went to med school right after Drexel are finishing their programs. I never did that, but I feel really good about it. I have a Mabel. I have Lattes & Llamas. And I wouldn’t trade it for anything. I might still get a PhD eventually, but I don’t feel like I missed out on anything. It’s been a weird twisty path, but I got where I was going. Which is here. I think that this shawl is such a good representation of what I became, instead of all the stuff I thought I’d be. For the last two years, I haven’t designed much outside of Geek-A-Long squares. This year, I’m giving myself the time and room to do it again. I’ve got a new collection in the works (based on D&D classes! more to come at a later date), and I’m in love with doing Geek-A-Long inspired designs.
Sorry for the weird, long, rambly life story I put in here. I guess you can probably expect a little of that on all the premium Geek-A-Long pattern posts. They make us nostalgic.
~ Megan-Anne
*Fun Geek-A-Long historical fact: we wanted to call it the Geek-A-Week, but then found out that was taken.
P.S. I knitted the Caffeinated shawl with Vacation Yarn. It seemed only right.
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I love your story, and things happen at certain times for a reason. I had skipped out on the college route after highschool and went working instead, lab tech, HIV/AIDS edu, and eventually pharmacy tech. Worked full time as a pharmacy tech for 5 years and decided that I loved the work and should go to pharmacy school. 3 months into my first go at college at 28 and we found out we were pregnant. So, college pre-reqs slowed down, working went to part-time (and eventually resigning), and we added a second baby too, and now, 8 years later, I did the PCAT and was accepted at the only pharmacy school I considered applying to. Both kids are in elementary school and I’ll be starting pharmacy school this fall. Things happen at certain times for a reason. You are exactly where you need to be at this time. :) <3
I appreciated your story. I’m glad you have gotten to a better place. I had two children while working on my PhD, and they were 5 and 7 by the time I finished. My PhD is in Computer Science and Engineering, and I am a designer of custom clothing, primarily tutus. I tell people my sewing machines have computers in them. While I am happy I finished my degree, and have recently started editing technical papers, I am even happier to have my kids (now just younger than you and Jac) and to be doing what I am doing. It is never to late to go back to school, but you only get your kids once, and it sounds like you have already found a way to make money doing something you love. Plus, you make lots of the rest of us happy, too. Good luck with all your future endeavors, and keep the fun designs coming!
Thanks!
Wow, wow, wow! I’m abandoning all of my other knitting plans immediately and starting this shawl!! I love it! Thank you so much for sharing a bit about your personal story here. I’ve also taken a very windy road through life, and it’s nice to look at that from the outside and see how beautiful it can be. Go you!! :)
P.S Thank you for the free pattern! I downloaded it and went directly to Child’s Play and made a $25 donation.
That’s wonderful, thank you!
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Thank you for sharing your story, and thank you for doing all that you do! I am so much looking forward to seeing (and buying and making) all your new designs to come, and also working with the lovely L&L yarns. So glad that things are going well for your, even though there were some hard times in there!
Thanks :)
Thanks for sharing that with us. My story is different than yours, but there are similarities of how motherhood has taken us in a different direction than our friends or our expectations. It’s really encouraging to see others in similar situations.
I am really happy for you that you’re in a better place and I appreciate your sharing some of the difficulties with us. It’s easy to assume successful designer sisters have the perfect life, but it brings strangers a little closer when we see how we can relate.
❤️