2021 Geek-A-Long: Weeks 13-16

Four weeks of Doctor Who goodness is coming straight to you in one big blog post! Today, we’ll have everything from the 2014 Tardis square to the 2018 Cyberman square with a little Torchwood and River Song in the middle. But before we hop into a strange blue Police Box and things get timey-wimey, I have a couple of things I need to tell you about.

May is Mental Health Awareness Month in the United States. Considering the fact that I should be sharing week 18 with you today and I still won’t be caught up after updating four squares this weekend, this feels like the perfect opportunity to “come clean” with you. My depression is like an iceberg. At the top, you can see the standard pandemic induced existential dread and glimpses of my seasonal affective disorder. Underneath the surface, however, is clinical depression and PTSD, which have ripped a hole into the side of my boat called Life more than I’d like to admit lately. Now, more than ever, it feels like the right time to help fight the stigma surrounding mental health and show you that you’re not alone. Whether your mental health is an iceberg or the pandemic has foisted depression onto you for the first time, you are not alone. It’s okay to talk about it, and it’s okay to ask for help. If you’re unsure where to start, the National Alliance on Mental Illness‘s website is a good place.

I should probably mention that while I’ve been a hot mess lately and the Geek-A-Long revamp has suffered for it (along with our plans to relaunch the Lattes & Llamas YouTube Channel), Megan-Anne is on track to host a second Geek-A-Long Sweater KAL this year. She’s been funneling all of her design, knitting, and free time into it, which is why you haven’t seen her around much here or on Instagram. Assuming we can find a new tech editor in time (our old one retired), we’re still planning to host the kick-off party on June 13th, which is when the first of 24 cues will be released. The theme and pattern details will make its debut at the end of May.

Also, if you’re an experienced tech editor who isn’t intimidated by double knit garments, for the love of all that is good and coffee, please contact us.

One last thing to note before I talk about Doctor Who, we are still planning to relaunch our YouTube Channel. We have a long list of tutorials we had planned to shoot — and reshoot in some cases — but that hasn’t happened yet. Well, not successfully anyway. My iceberg depression aside, finding a quiet place to film has been ROUGH. I envy other people with their seemingly sound-proof offices and/or the ability to kick all of their family members out of the house for extended periods of time. While we are optimistic about getting the Geek-A-Long Academy tutorial series up and running before the sweater’s kick-off party, I don’t want to make any concreate promises.

And now for what you came here for, Doctor Who.

The square pictured immediately above this one is perhaps one of the most nonsensical we’ve ever done. It says “Hello Sweetie” in Gallifreyan, Professor River Song’s usual greeting to the Doctor. It was also the message that River left on an airplane’s black box for the doctor in the episode “The Time of Angels.” An episode which never fails to give me chills. Like I said all the way back in 2015 when we released the River Song square:

It’s rare to find a Whovian that doesn’t have strong feelings regarding Professor River Song. Her relationship with the Doctor is both the most beautiful and most heart-breakingly sad story ever written. Romeo and Juliet don’t hold a tragedy candle to River and the Doctor. 

~ Jac, week 36 of the 2015 Geek-A-Long

The other squares — the Cyberman and the Tardis — are both iconic. The Torchwood symbol is probably lesser so, but no one would look at the River Song square and have the foggiest idea of what it is. Even though it was perhaps the most difficult square I’ll adapt from the original 59 row by 59 stich patterns featured in 2015 to the standard 57 row by 45 stitch square patterns for both double knitting and crochet… And even though it literally drove me tears and made me want to flip a table while I was working on it, the whole experience honestly felt very on brand for a River Song inspired square. When Professor Song wasn’t making me laugh or admire her, she was frustrating to understand and her episodes left me in tears.

You can read the original blog posts about Doctor Who’s Tardis, Torchwood, River Song, and Cybermen by clicking the highlighted links. Those posts also contain previews of the Geek-A-Long patterns and a download button like the ones below for you to snag the pattern for yourself.

If you missed my introduction post about my revamp efforts for the 2015 squares, the pattern includes both the original 59 row by 59 stich pattern as well as a new 57 row by 45 stitch square patterns for both double knitting and crochet.

~ Jac

There’s nothing like filming a bunch of tutorials back to back only to learn that you can hear Mabel the Merciless or the cats yelling through all of them.

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.