The Geek-A-Long (GAL) is an annual yearlong mystery blanket knit/crochet along designed by Lattes & Llamas for the benefit of Child’s Play Charity. The sample blanket made by Lattes & Llamas is auctioned off at the annual Child’s Play Charity gala in December each year. Participants are encouraged to donate to Child’s Play Charity via this portal in lieu of paying for the patterns, but it isn’t required.

With over 200 nerdy afghan squares to choose from, the patterns are free and anyone can jump in at any time. Join thousands of people across the globe in an active online community to make your very own geeky blanket in either the recommended size (24 squares), on hard mode (48 squares), or nightmare mode (156 squares using fingering weight yarn)!

If you’re new to the Geek-A-Long or nervous about getting started, read this comprehensive article Jac wrote that will help you get started on your nerdy adventure: Starting the Geek-A-Long. There you will also be able to download printables to help you keep track of which squares you plan to knit.

In 2019 we dialed back our release schedule and now make a 24 square blanket every year instead of a 48 square one.

Beginning on the first Sunday of the new year, we will release a new square once a week until we’ve complete that years blanket. In the second half of the year, we will be hosting a sweater knit-along for the Geek-A-Long to expand our knitterly horizons.

You can stay up to date on new square releases by signing up for our newsletter. 

You can search through our catalog of over 200 squares by going to the Squares page. Want to stay up to date on the latest GAL news? Join our newsletter!

No.

We get this request anywhere from one to three times a week, and it is just not possible for Jac to fulfill all of the requests, especially since some squares can take up to four hours for her to design. As a result, it is our policy to politely decline all requests as to not show special treatment to any one person.

Another reason why we will not design a square for you is because, other than our time being limited, we often get requests for squares that either already exist or are planned to be released in the future. Running the Geek-A-Long takes a lot of preparation, and we are either planning or actively working on the next two years of squares while you are enjoying the current year.

If you are a member of the Geek-A-Long Ravelry group, we often post a teaser of the upcoming square for members to guess which geekiness is in store for them. While we do let them know when someone guesses correctly, that is the closest we get to handing out spoilers. The GAL is a MYSTERY blanket knit-along. However, I will say that we are known to drop occasional hints in our blog posts and on social media.

Even if this were not a MYSTERY knit-along, we currently do not own any of the licences and cannot sell the patterns. We release these patterns for free to raise awareness for Child’s Play Charity, which is how we stay protected from copyright lawyers. 

After Megan-Anne and Jac decide on the theme and spitball ideas, they use Intwined Pattern Studio to design the color charts stitch by stitch. They do NOT use special software to convert digital images into patterns. To get an idea of Jac’s process, follow this link to get a peek behind the scenes.

Mostly. All of the squares are interchangeable other than those from 2015. The squares from 2015 contained more rows and stitches than the other years. When we began the Geek-A-Long in 2014, we imagined each blanket as its own entity and planned to make each one vastly different, so we switched things up for 2015. Then the Geek-A-Long fans rioted, begging us to make all future squares interchangeable, and now we don’t speak of the 2015 blanket.

If you’d like to incorporate those squares into your blanket, you can add more stitches and rows to your squares to make them the same size as those from 2015.  

Yes, there are plans to give the 2015 squares a redesign to be interchangeable. This project is slow going.

The patterns are not currently available as one PDF download. You can search through our catalog of over 200 squares by going to the Squares page.

Want to stay up to date on the latest GAL news? Join our newsletter!

The sample blanket made by Lattes & Llamas is auctioned off at the annual Child’s Play Charity gala in December each year.

Child’s Play is a charity that has dedicated themselves to improving the lives of children with toys and game in their network of over 100 hospitals worldwide. To learn more about Child’s Play Charity, check out their website at childsplaycharity.org. 

If you would like to make a monetary donation to Child’s Play Charity, please use the officially sanctioned CP Charity widget. The money never passes through Lattes & Llamas hands and goes directly to the charity. This handy widget allows us to know how much money the Geek-A-Long has raised for this awesome charity.

If you would like to sell your blanket to raise money for the charity, CP Charity requests that you use eBay/Missionfish to sell your blanket to ensure that 100% of the proceeds go to Child’s Play Charity.

Since its conception in 2014, the Geek-A-Long has raised over $6,000 for Child’s Play Charity.  Participants are encouraged to donate to CP Charity via this portal in lieu of paying for the patterns, but it isn’t required. Additionally, to help the cause even more, Lattes & Llamas donates $1.00 to Child’s Play Charity for each skein of Geek-A-Long Yarn sold. Here at Lattes & Llamas we believe that when knitters give back, everyone wins.

The number of yards required to knit or crochet a Geek-A-Long blanket will vary depending on your gauge and yarn choice. Here is a handy math equation for you:

(Total Yards For One Square) X (Number of Squares) = Total Yards Needed

Total yards used for one finished square multiplied by the number of squares equals the total yards needed to make your blanket. This calculation does not include the yarn needed to join the squares or edge blanket. For our 2014 blanket, knitted on Hard Mode (48 squares), we used approximately 7,200 yards of worsted weight yarn on size US 7 – 4.5mm needles.

Even though we’d love it if you used our sport weight Geek-A-Long Yarn since we donate $1.00 USD per skein to Child’s Play Charity, you are welcome to use your preferred weight and brand of yarn.

Lattes & Llamas began as a design house for Megan-Anne and Jac to release their patterns. The first two blankets (2014 and 2015) were made with yarn donated from Cascade Yarns. In 2016, we partnered with Louet North America, who pledged to donate 50 cents for every skein of GEMS Worsted, but the process was complicated to track which purchases were for the Geek-A-Long.

At this time, Megan-Anne and Jac were already dabbling in hand-dying yarn. After feedback from participants, we decided to create our own line of yarn especially for the Geek-A-Long. Now, no matter if you purchase Geek-A-Long Yarn to make a GAL blanket, knit a sweater, or crochet at hat, we will donate $1.00 USD to Child’s Play Charity for every skein of yarn you purchase. It has also made it possible for us to curate Geek-A-Long Starter Kits for newcomers.

TLDR: When the Geek-A-Long began, we didn’t sell yarn. Now, one could argue, we sell yarn because of it.

Don’t panic! We have no plans to remove any of the patterns from our website, and plan on being around for a long time. With over 200 nerdy afghan squares to choose from, the patterns are free and anyone can jump in at any time. Read this comprehensive article Jac wrote that will help you get started on your nerdy adventure: Starting the Geek-A-Long. There you will also be able to download printables to help you keep track of which squares you plan to knit.

That’s okay! You can participate as little or as much as you want. No one will come to your house and yell at you if you don’t finish within a year. Work at your own pace and join thousands of people across the globe in an active online community while make your very own geeky blanket.

Yes! Feel free to make two separate squares and sew them together. Or, you can make one square and have a “wrong side” to your blanket. Whatevs. We also welcome crocheters and cross stitchers to join us as well! In 2017, we began creating separate charts for crocheters in the patterns, so that the images on the crocheter’s squares wouldn’t be skewed due to the different gauges.

Absolutely! Participate in whatever way makes you happy. In 2017, we began creating separate charts for crocheters in the patterns, so that the images on the crocheter’s squares wouldn’t be skewed due to the different gauges.

We sure do! You can find it here. You can also find more of our how-to videos here.

A knit-along (KAL) is a group activity, where hundreds of knitters are working the same pattern at the same time. KAL’s foster community, encouraging people to enjoy the creative process together by sharing progress pictures and starting discussions on various techniques. You can join our online community, where you’ll find like minded people, who also love to geek out about the slew of fandoms we’ve honored during the course of the Geek-A-Long.

All of our patterns are intended for personal use only. We don’t own any of the licenses and neither do you. However, if you wish to sell your Geek-A-Long blanket or an item using one of our patterns for the benefit Child’s Play Charity, please follow the guidelines set forth by CP Charity and use Missionfish to ensure that 100% of the proceeds go to Child’s Play Charity. If you use our color charts for other projects and share the pattern with other for free, please give Lattes & Llamas appropriate credit, link to our website and the Child’s Play Charity widget.

You cannot use one of our patterns in your designs for profit, all of our patterns are intended for personal use only.

You may use our color charts with other projects for personal use, such as turning one of our squares into a throw pillow as a gift for your niece.

If you use our color charts in a design and wish to share the pattern with others for free, you must notify us of your intentions and give Lattes & Llamas appropriate credit within the pattern with a link to our website and the Child’s Play Charity widget. We reserve the right to deny your request to use our designs as we take our intellectual property very seriously. However, it should be noted that we have yet to deny a request and enjoy sharing such projects with our followers.

Lattes & Llamas will never tell you not to make art. That said, all of these fandoms are the copyright of someone else. Unless you have written permission from the copyright holder, we ask that you not share your alternate squares. Lattes & Llamas takes intellectual property and the copyrights of other artists very seriously. Our posts are carefully crafted to adhere to federal guidelines regarding copyright and fair use of licensed material.

That said, we are not the internet the police, nor do we wish to grow up to become them. If you choose to post your own fan square, we can’t stop you and we’re not going to play big brother. However, we do ask that you respect that “Geek-A-Long” is a trademark of Lattes & Llamas and that when you represent something as “Geek-A-Long” it can easily be construed by the casual observer that L&L is responsible/behind that post. This can create serious legal issues for L&L and jeopardizes the integrity of the company and this project. In particular, using charting software like Stitchboard and Knitpro to create a chart from an image, whether from a photograph or artwork, is both copyright infringement and plagiarism, even if you make modifications to the final chart. Lattes & Llamas does not take responsibility for people that choose to do this. And the original rights holders may choose to take action against someone who does. For all future and previous created fan squares, you must note that you are not affiliated with Lattes & Llamas and that this is not part of the official Geek-A-Long project.