This shawl was designed to celebrate Benoît B. Mandelbrot (20.11.1924 – 14.10.2010) , a Polish-born, French and American mathematician.

He developed the “fractal geometry” and the Mandelbrot set. This shawl shows part of the borders of the Mandelbrot set. It is the source of many beautiful fractals.

The shawl is worked in Double Knitting and 45 Double-Stitches times 430 rows. The reverse side shows a inversed and mirrored version of the fractal and the name “Mandelbrot” unmirrored. This is achieved by having stitches knit and purled in black or orange.

My version took me about 1.5 month working non exclusively on it. In the beginning the pattern looks very chaotic. However after you knitted some more and take a step back I think it turned out beautifully.

Every fan of Mathematics should have a Mandelbrot-Shawl :-) At least me…

Picture of Mr. Mandelbrot: David Monniaux, cc-License.

The pattern design is based on a section of this representation of the Mandelbrot Set, which is in public domain.