I’ve been a STEM girl most of my life. In past jobs, I played with and studied DNA & RNA, and I still teach microbiology.
Rosalind Franklin’s work was instrumental in determining the structure of DNA in the early 50s, but she ended up not getting credit for it until practically the 1990s.
Sexism, personality clashes, the nature of academic research, and her death at a young age all contributed to her work remaining outside of common knowledge.
But it was hers and her PhD student’s famous Photo 51 (see below) that led to unlocking DNA’s helical structure. And it’s this Photo that served as the inspiration for a new design that’s meant to honor Franklin’s contribution with the elegant simplicity of garter stitch miters.
The fingering weight shawl is worked in small, portable strips of garter stitch that are seamed together later to make for relaxing knitting and a cozy shawl with twisting strands of a woolly double helix resembling Franklin’s lab’s famous photo.
Knit the strips one at a time, put them together later when you feel like it. If you can count garter ridges, this is seriously satisfying summer knitting!
Can’t quite picture how it’s put together? Check out the pattern page on Ravelry for an additional construction photo (and a link to a video tutorial where I take you through putting it together).
And of course it’s on sale at a discount along with any and ALL of my patterns in my shop. Just use the code LyricalKAL2026 now through June 12th (someone’s birthday…) on either Ravelry or Payhip:
And if you’d like a direct link to my full Ravelry and Payhip shops, they’re right here: Lyrical Knits on Ravelry, and Lyrical Knits on Payhip.
I’ve been a long-time collaborator with the good folks at Miss Babs Yarns. They’ve recently started featuring designers and hosting KnitaLongs of their work, and I’m their feature for the summer KAL! Go figure??
Team Babs has kits available for the Photo 51 shawl and is ramping up kits for other designs as well. They’ll be opening up a dedicated KAL thread in their Ravelry group, so if you’d like join us in having some extra fun (some prizes, extra support, extra enjoyment), pop over to either the Babs Ravlery group or their Facebook group to join in.
They’ll be hosting a few Zooms (first one is June 9th) for all of us to chat about our progress, yarn choices, what sort of munchies we’re pairing with our knitting (cheese is always my choice :o)
Babs & Friends Group on Facebook
If social media isn’t your thing—that’s totally ok! But if you’d like to join in any of the Zooms, be sure to join their mailing list, so that you’ll get the link.
I hope you can join in!
Be well, and thanks for hosting me in your inbox:)
Mary (aka Lyrical Knits)
P.S. If you’d like to join me in a lovely spot outside of Kalamazoo, Mi this coming September, there are still a few spots* left in the Making in Michigan retreat with Emma’s Yarns. I’ll be teaching along with Lisa Ross (PaperDaisy) and Stephanie Lotvan (Tellybean Knits).
*a note that accommodations listed as “dorm” don’t have private bathrooms as far as I know. So if that’s important to you, the off-campus option would work best for you. The info page lists a recommended nearby hotel with a shuttle to the venue. We’re going to have a wonderful time, and I hope to see you there!
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