Periodic Table Shawl Knit with Updated Elements

Let me say right off that I am using the chart so kindly posted by Apinnick for her Periodic Table Sweater. My background is in Biochemistry and I love Chemistry. This sweater grabbed my attention immediately, especially since I used to wear a yellow periodic table T-shirt in high school. (long term geek that I am)

Instead of a sweater, I am making a flat shawl/throw in worsted weight cotton yarn. I chose this yarn because I've had a couple of CONES of the stuff sitting around since 2006, driving me nuts. The numerical description of the background is at least 120 stitches by at least 215 rows. Note that I am doing this SIDEWAYS. The sideways orientation fits my knitting frame and my (im)patience level. I would have gone bonkers knitting this by hand right now. I have other stuff to finish on a deadline.

I chose to knit the background in stockinette stitch on a Bond knitting frame. I knit 11 rows of white, then 1 row of (blue-green) contrast yarn. The contrast yarn helps me define the squares of the Table and serves as a counting device. Also, when complete, I want the background to evoke the idea of "notebook paper" and "graph paper". Besides, that, it was in my stash.......

So far, I have knit the background. I have not bound off the edges because I will hand knit some sort of edging later. I'm considering stitch patterns, etc.

I'm doing the actual elements in duplicate stitch, rather than knitting them in with the background. As I go, I'm making decisions about color and arrangement. (That means digging up stash yarn).

Important Note: The original Periodic Table Sweater was made in the late 1990's. There have been a number of new elements that have been discovered/ approved since then. IUPAC (International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry) has approved names for some of these elements and had temporary names for others. I am going to make (and post) a chart for some of the updated elements. Also, there are a few variations on the arrangement of the Periodic Table. My version will be slightly different from Apinnick's version. The new elements get added and the actinoids and lanthanoids are slightly different. Here is a version of the Periodic Table that shows the new elements, starting from the Atomic Number 104.