Double Helix

tight

Call me unschooled, but until the other day, I had no idea that turtles have vertebrae fused to their shells.

This treasure is on display at the New England Aquarium.

Come to think of it, perhaps I did once know about the vertebrae-shell fusion. I spent an enchanting afternoon more than twenty years ago in the comparative osteology exhibit in the National Museum of Natural History at the Smithsonian. My fixation then was the bat skeleton, as it revealed the repetition of skeletal elements. Then as now, the snake skeleton really amused me, being compose apparently of one long rib cage. It isn't, quite.

Brought to you by Science Sunday Suze-Style, which may permanently replace the Friday version.

palliative

For the past few days, I have been increasingly spun up about something. Specifically, we submitted papers for publication on August 31, 2007. As most papers are, they were submitted to a peer-reviewed journal, which means other experts read the manuscripts, and opine on what experiments still need to be done in order to make the bottom line of the manuscript stick. It's a nerve-racking time, waiting for these reviews to come back. My boss seems to disagree, but I've known extremely talented scientists who are not immune to the pressure.

Mostly, I've shuttled between my house and the lab for the past couple of months. I did take PeachPit and her friend, the Bold Irish Lass, to the aquarium. For the first time, I had an unimpeded view of this exhibit:

Those things in the foreground are jellyfish.

the next big thing

After finishing the second Circus Blanket, I was casting about for a good bus project. Desired features: fairly portable, with a high knitting to thinking ratio.

Plan A: a seed stitch scarf in Great Adirondack Sirino. Conclusion: pretty fabric, but the shape and drape combination not so enchanting.

Plan B: a Faroese shawl

darker blue-green mix - Trekking Pro Natura
periwinkle - Blackberry Ridge
natural brown - Blackberry Ridge
pink with flashes - Great Adirondack Sirino
turquoise - Rowan Harris Tweed

These are all fingering weight yarns, with which some people would make socks. Clearly I am willing to stash this weight of yarn, but not knit socks. I think it's because I like a large canvas. This project should keep me out of trouble for a while.

Addendum: Size 2 needles are in effect. I can't tell you how many times I forget to record this information.

lexicon

swatch	a sample piece of cloth (usage from the mid-17th century); in knitting, a small piece of cloth used to evaluate gauge
switch	a swatch indicating an undesired gauge or texture of fabric
swash	a washed swatch, the only reliable tool for measuring true gauge
swish	swatch less than 30 stitches wide, prepared by optimistic knitters
svetch	what you do when your swish lies
smatch	the act of approximating a single dyelot from multiple dyelots
smush	the act of cramming your knitting project into your backpack or similar receptacle
squoosh	a intensive (but feel free to debate this qualification) property of yarn, especially handspun
swoosh	the giant sucking sound made by yarn stores as you are pulled past the event horizon (defined in this case as the watershed for stashquisition; see here for other uses of general relativity)

Now that you mention it ...

Thank you, everyone, for your enthusiasm for my seaming technique as will as the sweater itself. I neglected to mention that the technique can be used to add width, a necessary element when I conceived of the approach. Oh sure, I had swatched, preparing not a swish, but a proper swatch - a swash, no less. After I cast on, I unfairly suspected that my swash had told swish-like lies. With a wide but shallow piece of knitting, still on the needles and not a proper swatch, I recalculated gauge. After knitting the body of my husband's sweater, I realize that I was moving treacherously toward negative ease. I hit upon the idea of adding a gusset from wrist to waist using garter stitch ridges. I could have used a single color, but I thought it would be more entertaining to use various colors, and additionally more likely to obscure the original conundrum.

Julie, thanks for stopping by! Your blog looks like a great place to noodle around.

Claudia, a Golden Ratio design would be most excellent. Apparently, the ratio of pitch to width for B-form DNA approximates the Golden Ratio.

Dave, it was indeed fun, at least after I recognized that a perfectly even distribution of live stitches on each side of the seam was required for getting the horizontal stripes to match. 

Mafia, thanks for the color compliment! I owe it all to my mom. (The nature versus nurture component is unresolved here, but the statement works either way.)

Ariel and Rebecca, the yarn used was Tibet Silk Wool. I just love the way it looks when knit up. The production values for the batches that I was using were not even, with some colors overwound, and some under-wound, which led to frequent disintegration mid-row. Rather than tink, I opted for weaving in the tails of outrage.

Colleen, I'll see what I can do about an action post!

snap

Now that autumn shows signs of moving in, it's sweater time.

I finished this sweater ages ago, but it came up in conversation recently. When I began, I knew that I wanted a non-repeating striping pattern. At the time I was possessed of a strong symmetry reflex, and did not trust myself to wing a random pattern. I turned to the natural world.

You may know that pi, for example, is a non-repeating decimal fraction. I went trawling for the first million digits of pi, and had little luck that day. I did find the first million digits of e, though, which suited me just fine. Armed with enough non-repeating numbers to last me a lifetime, I started on a sweater for my mate. The stripe widths are governed by digits within e. The colors are discretionary.

I also came up with a seaming method that entertained me. (The back and front of the sweater do in fact match. The wonky fold, made to display the seam, suggests otherwise.) Using black, I picked up every stitch on the back of the sweater. I decreased periodically when knitting back to adjust for gauge. (This is my usual approach, by the way, rather than skipping rows when picking up.) For giggles, I threw in a ridge of the apple green. I stopped when I ended a right-side row in the pink. After doing likewise with the front, I used a three-needle bind off from the right side to close the seam.

diffraction

What creativity! I adored your guesses regarding Rorschach.

More specifically (or Now that you mention it ...):

Dorothy, I loved the poetry of your "all seeing eye" description, though your poetic sensibilities are no surprise.

Dave, I think I remember black and white test patterns. Since pop culture depends so much on recycling of ideas, phrases, and images, I can't be certain. The color pattern at right springs clearly from memory.

Liz, I gotta hand it to you; the long axis does indeed look a bit like a mitotic spindle.

Claudia, that would be one fabulous inset for a timepiece!

Rebecca, thanks for the education! Indeed, I needed to look up Dr. Caligari's Cabinet.

Mishka, you are help creating a monster! For half a year now, I have been toying with the idea of getting a low-resolution digital microscope, using it to investigate the world of fiber and related entities, and conveying the findings to my beloved readers. Cells are in fact what I usually observe under the scope. I confess that the image in Rorschach is not my own.

Jordan, more specifically?  I suspect a knuckler, as compiled from a layered series of freeze-frames.

Sus, Fourier transforms seem to have something to do with getting those pretty pictures in Science.

Mafia, I loved the X-Files, especially the episodes unrelated to Cancer Man and the pervasive conspiracy, and the increasingly weak rationale for letting Mulder live. My favorite episode: Humbug. Quite aside from the clever plots, the pulchritude of David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson offer something for everyone.

Toast, do you know some newts? Newsy newts? Nosy newsy newts? Maybe that last bit is redundant, in that all newsy newts are also nosy newts.

Liz and Kim, indeed, you are right; the image is the fiber diffraction that Rosalind Franklin took of DNA, which formed the basis for the Watson and Crick model. The story of the observations that drove the understanding of DNA as the genetic material, the structure of DNA, and the mechanism for its propagation is complex. How Franklin's role should be regarded is still a matter of discussion.

Kim, it's true, I need a banner!