Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Peptide Beer Cozy!

Based on the amino acid charts that I have designed, I decided to take them to the next level and make a peptide pattern. Here I incorporated it into a beer cozy.

Materials Required
  • worsted weight yarn - I used Wool of the Andes from KnitPicks: Lake Ice Heather (MC), Winter Night (Nitrogens), Hollyberry (Oxygens), and Black (bonds).
  • size 3 double pointed needles (I like a tight gauge on my cozies)
  • A beer bottle to check the desired height







Pattern
  • Cast on 45 sts in the main color (this will be the top of the cozy)
  • k2, p1 *repeat for three rows
  • Start the chart, working from the bottom up, right to left. (note that the first charted row is all in the main color) (Please notice the update. I have rotated the chart so you can make the cozy as shown in the picture versus knitting the mirror image. I managed to invert it correctly in my head as I made the cozy myself.)
  • (starting the decreases for the bottom - you may want to make the decreases faster or slower depending on your gauge.) K5, K2tog * repeat 6 times, K3 (39 sts)
  • k1 round even
  • K1 K2 tog (26 sts)
  • K1 round even
  • K2 tog across (13 sts)
  • K2 tog across, K1 (7 sts)
  • pull remaining stitches together. weave in loose ends.


You could incorporate any of the amino acid charts that I have published previously to create your own peptide chart. This particular amino acid sequence (HNAVS, aka His-Asn-Ala-Val-Ser) has no meaning other than it would fit on a beer cozy and I though these residues would be pretty. (Histidine happens to be my favorite amino acid, and I do have some affection for asparagines as well from my research.)

I did a BLAST (i.e. search all know protein sequences for this stretch of amino acids) this peptide sequence, the first non-hypothetical protein hit is a isopenicillin N epimerase, which is involved in penicillin biosynthesis. (For those of you who know what my research is about, this will be really funny!) Now, since there

I expect that this will be a hit around the lab!

This this pattern was created by ChemKnits for your personal or charity use. This pattern is not to be replicated, sold or redistributed without permission from ChemKnits. © 2009 ChemKnits