Geek-A-Long, Patterns

2018 Geek-A-Long: Gertrude Cardi

03
Dec

It’s the last Geek-A-Long Pattern of 2018! For the fifth year in a row, I’m humbled by the response we’ve gotten from the Geek-A-Long community. You guys are amazing and as we close on another year, take a minute to give yourselves some love for all the amazing things you have done. Jac and I have never been the magic in the the Geek-A-Long. That was always you guys. I’m grateful for the love and support we have received from this incredible community. There is really nothing else like it. We love you guys. To celebrate year five of the Geek-A-Long, we had wanted to give something back to you to show our appreciation for five years of being awesome together. The 2018 Geek-A-Long Premium Patterns are paid patterns on Ravelry and $1 of each purchase goes to Child’s Play Charity. You, however, are way too cool to pay for these. You’re in the know. Every fourth Sunday, when a premium GAL pattern was published we also published a coupon code that made the pattern completely free for you. The coupons are good for a year and a day from the date of publication, so if you haven’t downloaded some of the earliest ones you’ll want to do that soon. In case you missed any of the premium patterns, here’s a quick recap:

For the final Geek-A-Long Premium pattern, I wanted to go big. I’m nothing if not kinda literal so I went for a big yarn, a big needle, a big project, and a big homage. The Gertrude Cardi was inspired by all the amazing contributions to science made by Gertrude Elion. We honored her on the 2015 GAL blanket, but I basically can’t show her enough love. She developed life saving medications, including pioneering the research on medicines that assist in organ transplants and the treatment of AIDS. She won a Nobel Prize for her work in 1988, but since the world hates to give props to female scientists, she shared the win with George Hitchings and James Black.

Oh, and she did all of that without a PhD. She applied to 15 graduate fellowships, but was turned down on the basis that she was a woman. She attended secretary school instead and joined the work force. She tried again to study graduate level sciences part time while she worked, but the school eventually told her she either had to quit working and attend full time or drop out. She dropped out. Then, in direct defiance of the Patriarchy, she developed cancer drugs without their lame PhD. Suck it gender biases in science! She was eventually awarded an honorary degree from Harvard, and I like to imagine that when she got that news she laughed and hoped that they were just kicking themselves for not letting her attend the first time she applied.

The Gertrude Cardi is my way of honoring not just Gertrude Elion, but also all the strong, brave, brilliant women of STEM who have come before me. The lab coat inspired design is easy to wear and looks great on any body type. Big yarn and big needles combine with a seamless top down pattern to make a quick and fun knit. Little details like a shawl collar and slightly tapered waist give it just enough flair to be worn with just about any outfit. I chose to use a big box yarn on this one, and the reason was that I wanted something that could stand up to being worn every day and tossed in the washer and dryer with reckless abandon. Next week, I’ve got a post planned about choosing the right yarn for your project, even if it’s outside of your fiber comfort zone. My Gertrude sample will be a Christmas gift. I wanted it to both be an appropriate price (so as to not make my recipient uncomfortable) and also to reflect how I know they’ll use it. I was actually really happy with how the Simply Soft yarn performed.

You can get the Gertrude Cardi pattern for free by clicking the buy now link below AND entering the code ‘ELION’ at check out. Please note that sometimes the links take you straight to your Paypal cart. We can’t control that; I think it’s related to whether or not you are actively logged into Ravelry when you click it. When that happens, you won’t be offered the option of entering the coupon code. Should that occur, just cancel out of that sale, log into Ravelry and purchase that hat there so you can enter the coupon code. This coupon code will expire one year and a day from today, at which point it will be $6 USD.

A PDF will be emailed to you by Ravelry. You don’t need to be a Ravelry member to purchase the pattern, but if you are, the PDF will show up in your library

 

~Megan-Anne

She didn’t even need their dumb PhD.

Leave a Reply