Interested in knitting the Vice Versa Shawl? You can purchase it on my website here or through Ravelry here.
Some background on the design collaboration:
I've been sitting on the general concept of this design - a two-color brioche triangular shawl knit from the center out - for actually a couple years now. When inspiration struck (summer of 2022), I did some swatching with some stash yarn, but didn't feel compelled to continue. My initial choice of garter selvedges was not as neat as I envisioned, and I had satisfied the initial design "itch" to swatch. Life was also "life-ing", so I tucked the idea away for later and moved on. You can see my original swatch pictured below:
The cream colored yarn is Shear: Merino-Dorset DK by Harrisville Designs and the brown yarn is Purl Soho Good Wool in one of the undyed shades, which may not be available anymore? I checked their website but was unable to find it.
After a year and a half, an oh-no-I-am-going-to-lose-yarn-chicken-panic purchase, and a failed second attempt (it's still only partially frogged and I 1000% lost yarn chicken), I was on a call with my dear friends, who offered an amazing idea. What if I incorporated my handspun yarn into the design? My spinning mojo had been pretty high at the time, and I was feeling inspired by some friends who were knitting Cinnabar shawls (pattern by Andrea Mowry) with handspun. With that last little piece of the puzzle, everything clicked for me, and I was ready to manifest the age-old saying of "third time's the charm".
A few days later, I sent an email to Jess of La Mercerie with a design collaboration proposal. Since then, Jess, Jenn and I have been working hard behind the scenes to bring this project to life.
Small Sample
I decided to knit the first sample using yarn and fiber from my stash. The commercial yarn I used in the small sample is Studio Dog Fibers 2019 Ribbon Winners, which I picked up from a fiber festival several years ago. From what I can tell, the yarn is a worsted-spun 3-ply fingering/heavy fingering weight with a slight halo. Studio Dog Fibers is the in-house yarn by 614 Knit Studio. I love a farm yarn, and the pale grey paired really nicely with my Pearlescent handspun for a lower-contrast sample. My handspun turned out to be a mostly-fingering-weight 2-ply.
You can find more info on my spinning process at the bottom of this post. Pictured above are the yarns side by side. I used the Studio Dog Fibers as Yarn A and the handspun as Yarn B in the Vice Versa Shawl.
Large Sample
For the large sample, I used the yarn and fiber sponsored by La Mercerie for the collaboration. I chose De Rerum Natura Ulysse for Yarn A and spun up Evermore on Targhee combed top. Wee Chickadee developed this color especially for La Mercerie and this design.
I knew right away I wanted to use Ulysse because of its squish and wide color range. I had knit with it previously in a sweater and adored both the knitting experience and the finished fabric. I was also strongly influenced by my friend Ariel's finished Cinnabar shawl, which used Ulysse.
Choosing Targhee for this design was mostly "dyer's choice" and up to Jenn. Targhee blooms and plumps up beautifully after washing, and we also reasoned that it would be a good pairing with Ulysse.
I intentionally paired Ulysse, a semi-woolen-spun yarn with a worsted-spun handspun yarn. I enjoy the contrast of the yarns in the two-color brioche fabric, but I understand that this pairing may not be everyone's cup of tea.
Spinning for Vice Versa: Musings and Further Reading
For those of you interested in spinning for this shawl, the sky truly is the limit. You could use handspun for either Yarn A or B, or you could spin for both! Before we get too far, I want to throw out a disclaimer that I am not a spinning expert.
Generally speaking, worsted-spun yarns and woolen-spun yarns will yield different knit fabrics in terms of texture, drape, weight, and loft. Worsted-spun yarns are denser, smoother and drape more than their woolen counterparts. Woolen-spun yarns are lofty, squishy and lighter in comparison. Woolen-spun yarns can also bloom more, filling out the spaces between your stitches. Depending on what your desired end result is, this will affect your choice in fiber type and preparation. My best advice is to sample and swatch to test out if you like your fabric.
If you would like to mimic the loft and squish of De Rerum Natura's Ulysse, I recommend choosing a woolen fiber prep such as roving, a batt, or rolags. Whether you use a worsted or woolen drafting technique, your yarn will contain more air compared to spinning from combed top (a worsted prep).
If you prefer a smoother, denser yarn, I recommend going with combed top. Targhee, Rambouillet and Cormo are all great choices that have tons of squish and plumpness, in my personal experience.
You can read more here about the spectrum of woolen to worsted yarns, here about spinning from combed top and here about spinning from a batt. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to DM me on Instagram or send me an email at bzbeeknits@gmail.com.
Spinning Details: Pearlescent on Polwarth
I chose two braids of Polwarth fiber in the colorway Pearlescent that I purchased from Jenn towards the end of 2023.
An experiment in color
For this spin, I wanted to try out a 2-ply where one ply was spun from blending baord rolags, and the second was spun from nestlets of combed top. I was imagining a watered down fractal-ish spin with more air compared to a typical worsted-spun fractal 2-ply from combed top. I also just love woolen preps and woolen spinning, and I couldn't resist a little experiment (for science). Pictured below are the blending board rolags on the left and the nestlets of combed top on the right.
The finished yarn
I love how the yarn turned out! It's a light a lofty fingering weight 2-ply with gradual color shifts, and it's so squishy and soft.
I made a YouTube video showing my spinning process (including fiber prep!), which you can find below.
Spinning Details: Evermore on Targhee
For the large sample, I decided to keep things a little more simple and went with a worsted-spun 2-ply fractal. First, I split the fiber (approximately) in half horizontally. Each half was then split vertically either into 4 (first ply) or 8 strips (second ply). I used one bobbin per ply, spinning the strips of combed top end to end.
All of my singles and final yarn were spun on my Ashford E-Spinner 3. I typically prefer using my 4 oz bobbins when spinning singles, and 8 oz bobbins when plying. You can check out my YouTube video below to learn more and see my spinning process.