2024 Geek-A-Long: Natural 20 Sweater Clue 1

Hello and happy Father’s Day to anyone celebrating! As I type this, Mr. Llama and I are sitting down to a nice Acolyte marathon and lattes for our festivities. I know for a lot of folks mother’s/father’s day can come with complicated emotions, and for those of you that find today challenging I’m sending you some virtual hugs. Family is who you choose as you grow, not an accident of birth <3.

This week marks the full kick-off of the 2024 Geek-A-Long project, and if you are just joining us, make sure to go back a week to the project sheet and steek tutorial. We’re running on a different schedule than usual this year, and clues will be released every other week, with each release containing a larger portion of the pattern. Clue 1 will take you through the cast on and yoke increases. On 6/30 the rest of the yoke will drop.

A few things to note:

• There are some small differences between the sample you’ll see in my photos, and the final pattern. In all cases these were to update or correct something that I’d have done differently if I could have.
• The colorwork on the first clue is not the most exciting charts to work, but I hope it winds up being a nice relaxing start to things. I promise these tentacles are going somewhere; the charts get very exciting in clue 2 and don’t slow down after that.
• The short rows for shaping the back are optional but recommended.
• If you have decided to work this sweater as a pull over rather than steeking to make a cardigan, make extra sure to omit the steek stitch cast on right before joining in the round. This is called out in the pattern, but would be worth finding and highlighting before you cast on if you won’t be steeking.
• The cast on edge at the neck may seem rather large, particularly in some of the larger sizes. We will be picking those cast stitches up in the final clue to work the collar and edges, and the higher the size, the greater the number of rows you’ll be working in the collar and the cast on is accommodating that.

Before we get to the pattern download, I want to share my Father’s Day fail (and also triumph) with you. I got Mr. Llama a new lunchbox and cool D20 bento box. I love embroidery but it’s been a really busy few months and I was super proud of myself for ordering a monogrammed lunchbox on Etsy rather than doing it myself. This was growth and personal development! I’m terrible at delegating, and this was a big deal for me.

I got it monogrammed with the wrong initials.

His initials are KCM. I bought him a lunchbox that just said “KC”. It’s a father’s day gift that says “your wife swears she does know your name, but also she has raging ADHD”. It came in time for me to add an M, and it does look really rad now (especially with the D&D patches I had always planned to add). I’m sharing this both because I like reasons to post pictures of embroidery, but also because the next time you are feeling down on yourself, remind yourself that at least you never ordered your partner a monogrammed lunchbox with the wrong initials.

View the Natural 20 Sweater: Clue 1 by clicking the download button below. When you download the pattern from our website instead of through Ravelry here, you will NOT receive automatic updates. You will have to come here and download the next clue every time. Please download it via Ravelry if you are able, so you have immediate access to the clues as they are released and any errata that may appear.

~Megan-Anne

What really brings this story home is that I changed my name when we got married. We have the same last name and I STILL managed to forget to include it in the monogram.

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. Ask your local yarn store to carry GAL Yarn or get it through our website.