AVFKW - Pro-Verbial club

AVFKW - Pro-Verbial club
Originally uploaded by Project Pictures

This is the first bobbin of "A Whale's Migratory Tale", the first offering from the Pro-Verbial Club from A Verb for Keeping Warm. Four total shipments will be offered (the choice was given to receive yarn or unspun, and of course, I like to spin my own) of a shawl pattern and a particular fiber base dyed by Kristine.

This fiber is Blue Face Leicester and tussah silk dyed with Indigo. The original yarn for the club was a two-ply with 400 yards. The shawl is a lovely, textural piece designed by Stephen West called Blue Whale (Ravelry link). For the sort of knit/purl textures Stephen was focusing on, I really like a three-ply yarn (Okay, I always prefer a three-ply yarn. It's a weakness of mine). The beauty of spinning it myself is that I can have a three-ply yarn if I want it!

I really wanted to stay consistent throughout this project, so I spun some undyed BFL/Silk from Textiles a Mano first. That came out much too thick, so I adjusted my single and then taped a bit of it to a notecard so that I could refer back to it throughout my time spinning. This worked great! The bobbin shown above was the first of three, but they all came out very, very similar.

As I worked, some of the first feedback came in on the shawl. At least one knitter ran short of yarn, and I know that handspun usually achieves less yardage than millspun yarn (especially since I'm working a three-ply instead of two). So in order to increase my yardage I decided to add in some of that oatmeal-colored BFL/silk blend. I purposefully divided the indigo-dyed fiber unevenly so that it would run out at different points, and as it ran out I simply switched over to spinning the other, undyed fiber.

Because of this, there is a lovely transition in the yarn where each ply of blue runs out and turns into oatmeal-brown BFL. There are hints of brown in the indigo-dyed fiber that tie it all together. And the transition also reminds me of the unique white patterning displayed on the underside of Humpback whale tails.

I'm chomping at the bit to get knitting on this one, but I really must finish up the last few Christmas projects, first.