Rosy

Some days you make a hat, and some days you play with DNA.

I happen to do both, incidentally, though not...as commonly as that statement might lead you to believe. I did however absolutely gush and rave over the GENEie hat pattern as it made its way through Ravelry. Not being possessed of an infinite range of solid colored soft worsted, however, I opted for the cabled version in a metallic gray, and, this being around the time of the March for Science, pinned my favorite Etsy pin to it for extra badassery.

Unfortunately, as my luck would have it, in April I happened to go on an away rotation halfway across the country, with Raiden in tow, and somewhere between the security line at JFK and the airport gate, the hat--with pin--disappeared into the ether, never to be seen or heard from again. Well, by me at least. One can only hope someone equally geeky picked it up and is now enjoying the spoils.

Never mind the loss of the Rebel Alliance pin (I have a different one attached to a suit jacket so not all is lost), I happened to have a small hank of the soft gray worsted left, so in the midst of moving all the way across the country I decided to make another hat...only to realize there was no way in hell that would be enough yarn.

Never one to be daunted by a yarn shortage, however, I devised my own way out. Not enough mathematical sense to be an engineer IRL, but enough to turn GENEie's DNA cable on its edge, work it back and forth on two needles, graft ends together, and voila headband! In this version, garter stitch (like you would use to edge a shawl) takes the place of ribbed edges, and the stand-alone double helix shares the spotlight with nobody ever. Because it is lovingly ripped off of another science-lover's hard work, however, I wasn't about to make an official PDF masterpiece of it. It does lend a bit of credence to the name I've given it, though.

Rosalind Franklin, disparagingly referred to as "Rosy" by Watson and Crick, was the one who, along with her colleague Maurice Wilkins, used X-ray crystallography to capture the structure of DNA. Her now-iconic X-shaped black-and-white photograph of the double helix in cross section almost surely had some influence on the boys' even more iconic 3-D model. Unfortunately for Franklin, she never received the same recognition as her colleagues: since the Nobel Prize isn't awarded posthumously, Wilkins shared the award with Watson and Crick when their work was duly toasted and immortalized. So in the spirit of scientific discovery--and all the drama that might entail--I give you Rosy!

Rosy (A Sideways Variation on GENEie)

Pattern notes:

Since this is an adaptation of an existing pattern rather than a new pattern, I did not do a gauge square or any of the usual preparation. That said, your gauge is whatever is sufficient to make 4 repeats of the 26-row double helix stretch comfortably around your noggin. The piece starts with a provisional cast-on (I'm a fan of the one-step Purl Soho version myself) and is worked back and forth to the desired length and the edges grafted together with kitchener stitch (again, plug for the Purl Soho instructions--I don't work for them, just bought some delicious yarn from them once when I still lived in New York). Use extreme caution when putting your provisional edge on a needle--I lost 2 stitches and had to improvise them back in. You may block or not, but personally I used acrylic yarn and ain't nobody got time for trying to make that do any bidding but its own. Chart only, because I'm too lazy to bother writing out a pattern, so don't go looking too hard.

 

Materials:

1 pair US size 8 knitting needles

Loops & Threads Soft & Shiny Solids (311 yd/284 m per 170 gm), Gray, somewhat <100 yd

Cable or tapestry needle for cables (and tapestry needle for grafting and finishing)

Crochet hook if desired for provisional cast-on of choice

Getting started:

Using waste yarn and provisional cast-on of choice, cast on 23 stitches. Knit 1 row. This will become your provisional edge that you will thread onto a new needle, because you really need to start the cables on your working yarn not your waste yarn.

Work that chart:

Starting with Row 1 (RS row), begin working chart from bottom to top, going from right to left on odd (RS) rows and left to right on even (WS) rows. The 5 stitches on each side form your garter "rib" border. Work chart 4 times or however many full times it takes to fit comfortably around your head.

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					knit on RS; purl on WS
		●			purl on RS; knit on WS
		◊			knit through back loop RS; purl through back loop WS
		/	/		C1: on RS hold stitch in back, knit next stitch, knit held stitch; on WS hold stitch in back, purl next stitch, purl held stitch
		\	\		C2: on RS hold stitch in front, knit next stitch, knit held stitch; on WS hold stitch in front, purl next stitch, purl held stitch
		●/	/		C3: on both sides hold stitch in back, knit next stitch, purl held stitch
		\	\●		C4: on both sides hold stitch in front, purl next stitch, knit held stitch

Pull it together:

With right sides facing inward (remember, your background is a wrong-sided stockinette panel so you want kind of the opposite of what you'd do in a stockinette situation), graft ends together with kitchener stitch.

Weave in ends, block if desired, and wear to your next lab meeting 'cause you know they keep it cold as the Ninth Ring of Dante's Inferno in that place!

Bonus: If you've held on this long, have a poem from my (probably never to be published 'cause I can't be bothered) "A Theory of Space and Time" collection...

Masters of the Universe

“Now see here, gents,

we shall have it all

one day: the key

to the kingdom,

I say of life,

and you fine gentlemen

of the universe,

God be our witness –

Rosy, dear, well done,

we'll take it from here.

Show the boys your toy

and how to take

such pretty pictures –

smile, don't be shrill –

we all want the same

as you, don't we lads? –

there's a good girl,

a fine help, almost

as good as a man.”

In her darkened corner

the crystals radiate

like microscopic stars,

etch perfect X formations

neither male nor female

at this magnitude,

but simply perfect,

pinned in a particle beam

like those that powered

hot dark beginnings

and quarks full of God,

set primordial pools brewing

a potion that dreams

of roles and genders

and writes the code

of its own destruction,

the seeds already germinating

somewhere she can feel,

taunting to be caught.