Celebrating the Gene-ius of Rosalind Franklin

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A tribute shawl worked in easy garter stitch and small portable strips that are seamed together later makes for relaxing knitting and a cozy shawl with twisting strands of a woolly double helix resembling Franklin’s lab’s famous Photo 51 X-ray.

Knit the strips one at a time, put them together later when you feel like it! Lengthening or shortening is easily accomplished by knitting more or fewer strips.

A woman in a male-dominated field has her work shared with competitors behind her back and ends up not getting credit for the discovery. It’s an old, too common story. Many say that if Rosalind Franklin hadn’t passed away, she would have shared the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1962, but we’ll never know since the award is not given posthumously.

We can, however, celebrate her genius by reminding the world of her contribution, and since we’re knitters, a woolen tribute shawl depicting the famous Photo 51 x-ray in delicious yarn is a great way to do that.

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Gauge: 21 sts & 35 rows/4” (after wet blocking) in garter stitch on a size 5 needle (or size to achieve gauge).
Materials:
2 skeins of the MC in Miss Babs Yummy 2-ply (400 yds/110g, shown in Boysenberry),
1 skein of CC1 in Miss Babs Yummy 2-ply (400 yds/110g, shown in Dark Carina), and
1 skein of CC2 in Miss Babs Yummy 2-ply (400 yds/110g, shown in Slate),
or approximately,
655(760) yds of the MC, 320(380) yds of CC1, and 290(360) yds of CC2 in fingering weight yarn.
Size 5 (3.75 mm) 24” or 32” circular needle or size needle required to achieve gauge in garter stitch,
A tapestry needle for grafting and weaving loose ends,
A locking stitch marker

Finished size: Sizes Med(Lg) approximately 19” wide x 60(77”) long after blocking. Size Lg shown.

Construction Note: While the shawl is rectangular in shape, it is constructed with a series of knitted strips: 3(4) Wide strips + 4(5) Narrow strips. The strips are then seamed to each other (super easy to do with garter stitch) to form a twisted helix of 2 gray colors on a background of the MC. It might look like intarsia, but there’s no intarsia at all!