Geek-A-Long 2022: Oregon Trail – Week 1

Welcome to the Geek-A-Long 2022!!!! This year we are going to let our freak-flags and freak-toes fly with some incredible socks inspired by our favorite classic video games. This year we are doing several shorter sock MKALs rather than one huge blanket or sweater, and we are starting the year off with The Oregon Trail!

ARE YOU READY TO DIE OF DYSENTARY?!?!?!?

The pattern will be released in 5 installments/clues:

3/27/2022 – Project Sheet and Gauge Swatch (That’s today!!)
4/3/2022 – Leg 1
4/10/2022 – Foot 1
4/17/2022 – Leg 2
4/24/2022 – Foot 2

There are 2 ways to get your pattern each Sunday: Right here on the blog (we always put the link to download at the bottom of the Sunday GAL Post), or on Ravelry. The advantage to using Ravelry is that your pattern will be automatically updated with the new clue each week. If you download here you’ll need to come here manually each Sunday to collect it.

The first week of each pair in the 2022 year-of-the-sock will be a project sheet that contains the yarn, needle, and gauge information you will need to cast on the following week. We’ve also got some really cool kits available that feature a limited edition L&L project bag, 3 awesome stitch markers (made by me!) and all the yarn you’ll need to make the pair. We’ll have a kit for every pair this year, but once they are gone, we won’t be restocking them.

That having been said, you can use any fingering weight yarn in colors that sharply contrast, and there is absolutely no requirement or expectation that you will use L&L yarn. I heard someone mention recently that they didn’t know if they should post on the GAL forum on Rav if they weren’t using our yarn and honestly we’ve been Geeking-Along for so long that sometimes I forget to bring it up every year: All people and yarns are welcome here.

So let’s get this party started!

This week’s download which is available on Ravelry by clicking here, and at the bottom of this post have the pattern for the Oregon Trail Gauge Swatch and your project information. We like a functional swatch so this year you’ll be getting a fine selection of travel mug sleeves. But that’s not the only way to use it! I like to use mine to hold the socks in my drawer. It’s so neat and organized and I feel like a Kondo-esque domestic goddess when I fill my top drawer with these.

Mabel the Merciless suggests that the Oregon Trail Zarf would make a spectacular “festival top” for Elmo. Really, the possible uses are endless.

View Oregon Trail: Project Sheet by clicking the button below. When you download the pattern 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.

~Megan-Anne

I don’t want to know what she was watching when she learned the term “festival top”. Surely I have a few years left before I have to tell her she can’t go to Coachella.

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.