It’s happening: The 2021 Geek-A-Long Sweater has officially kicked off! Over the next few weeks, we’ll be releasing tutorials and two practice swatches to get you ready to go when the first clue drops on June 20th. For the practice swatches this year I’ve made some fun themed potholders that are similar to working Geek-A-Long Blanket squares, but designed to give you a chance to practice some of the special stitches you’ll see in the On Board Sweater. If you missed the announcement post, you can check that out HERE.

Before we dig into the double knitted goodness that we’ve planned for the remainder of 2021, this week you can start preparing by downloading your project sheet, and gathering up the materials you’ll need to get started next week. Today, I’ll be answering all of your burning 2021 GAL questions.

2021 Geek-A-Long Sweater FAQ

What is the 2021 Geek-A-Long Sweater? This year’s sweater is a double knit cardigan inspired by classic and contemporary board games! The cardigan is a unisex grandfather silhouette and is meant to be oversized. The pattern includes instructions to add a zipper in the final clue, though you can also wear it open and skip the zipper.

I don’t know how to double knit. Can I just work the sweater in fair isles? You can, but I don’t recommend it for this project. In a lot of ways, this project is my love letter to double knitting. It feels fitting — double knitting is the wooly foundation the Geek-A-Long was built on. I’m not going to tell you, “No, you can’t work this in stranded knitting.” I’m not the yarn police, and I want you to follow your bliss. I will say that you will encounter some extremely long floats if you opt for stranded, and I will only provide pattern support for the pattern as written. Would you consider giving double knitting a try? I think you’ll love it. Over the next two weeks I’ll be releasing new and improved double knitting tutorials, along with two practice pieces. If you can knit and purl, you can double knit!

What pattern support will be available to people participating in the 2021 Geek-A-Long Sweater? I have blocked out time each week to be on Ravelry answering questions and helping participants trouble shoot any issues they run into. I’m also bouncing around the idea of setting up some virtual knitting group times. I’ll post more on that later when I figure out the logistics. The Geek-A-Long group on Ravelry is the best place to get support for this – and any other Geek-A-Long project. I’ll be extra active in the forums and will be posting tutorials on the blog as we go along on an as-needed basis. Don’t worry, intrepid knitventurers, you won’t be alone! I’ll be here with you the whole way, and we have an amazing community of welcoming knitters.

I want to make modifications to the sweater. Will you help me work those out or tell me what will come in future clues so I can plan them? The pattern includes instructions to make the body and/or sleeves longer. Outside of that I will only be able to provide pattern support for the pattern as written. This pattern is heavily charted. Changes to the stitch count in any part of the pattern will cause a future portion of the pattern to not work as written. I want to make sure that I am available to provide tons of time and support for the pattern as written, and I can’t do that and provide separate support for modifications. I hope you know I’m saying this from a place of love, and I wish that I had 36 hour days instead of just a measly 24. But for now my advice is that if you feel passionately that you need to modify the pattern in order for it to work for you, that you should wait until all of the clues are released, so that you can work those modifications with access to the full pattern.

Where will the pattern be released? The 2021 Geek-A-Long Sweater will be released in 24 clues on Ravelry and here on the blog. We recommend that you use Ravelry to participate because once you add the pattern to your library that pattern will automatically update with new clues as they are released. For most people that will be simpler and easier than coming here every week and manually downloading clues. That said, we recognize that some folks in our community are still experiencing accessibility issues with Ravelry. Each week the new clues will be available for download here on the L&L blog. As with the Geek-A-Long squares from prior years, you can find those downloads at the bottom of the blog post each Sunday that a clue releases.

How can I add the pattern to my Ravelry library? Click HERE to view the pattern on Ravelry. On the pattern page, click the link to download the pattern and select “add to my library.” Every time a clue releases, the pattern will automatically update in your Ravelry library.

The pattern calls for White, Black, and Red. Do I need to use those? Could I stash bust and choose colors for each clue once it releases? In previous years, Geek-A-Long projects typically featured “stand-alone” elements. For example, when knitting a blanket you could make color choices for each individual square. You’re not going to want to do that here. The sweater will be released as 24 clues but each of them are part of a whole, not 24 unique elements. This isn’t a project to play it fast and loose with your color choices, or to plan on making this a scrappy stash-busting piece. I can’t overstress this enough: Please choose three solid colors. They should be the sharpest contrast possible. I used black, white, and red. I almost never tell you that I think you really ought to use the colors I did (actually, I don’t think I’ve ever told you that), but this one time I am going to. There is a lot happening on this sweater, and a lot of fine detail. Some of it is color specific. So I’ll put it like this: I absolutely trust you to pick your own colors, but as you do, ask yourself if you will be happy with a checkers board that is not black and red. If you can confidently say “yes” to that, then follow your color bliss. If you think that might bother you, then go with the recommended black, white, and red for this one. I used Geek-A-Long Yarn in Baskerville, Palpatine, and Burning Love. It turned out beautifully.

View the project sheet by clicking this link or download it by clicking the button below. When you download the project sheet from our website instead of through Ravelry, you will NOT receive automatic updates. You will have to come here and download the next clue every time. Please download it via Raverly if you are able, so you have immediate access to the clues as they are released and any errata that may appear.

Are you guys as excited as I am about this project?! Get started gathering/ordering your yarn, and I’ll see you here next week to cast on the first practice project and to share some shiny new tutorials!

~Megan-Anne

You’ve got this.

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.