Tam in Paton's Lace Yarn

Patons Lace yarn caught my eye at Hobby Lobby weeks ago.

When John's mom asked me to write a hand knitting pattern for the tam, I thought this might knit up as a sport weight, even though it's marked as a #2, Fine yarn.

The reason is it's a brushed (hairy or fluffy) yarn and I generally expect those yarns to knit up about twice as thick as they look.  I love yarns like that, and I kept thinking about it, so when we stopped yesterday to buy a sport weight yarn to regauge the tam, I bought one ball of this and then bought another skein of something I was absolutely sure was sport weight.

Well, it really is a "fine" gauge yarn, and knits up just fine on the standard bed machine with the same gauge as sock yarn.  And, it's fluffy and lovely; the pictures do not do it justice.  I steamed it lightly and brushed it very gently to bring out the fluff a little.  Because of the very slow variegation, the colors tend to change at each of the hat sections.  With the very slow striping quality of the yarn, I think it would make a lace or tucked rib scarf, and the fancy colors wouldn't overpower the lace pattern.

The only difficulty in knitting with it is a tendency for the hairy fiber to catch a little, easily remedied by pulling the knitting down gently occasionally, for instance, at the end of the section when you need to move the claw weights anyway.

Paton's Lace is 80% acrylic, 10% mohair, 10% wool, 85 grams (3 ounces), and 498 yards.  You often get amazing yardage with a brushed yarn.  The tam only took 35 grams.  Now I have to buy more to make a scarf to match!

When our kids were little, we invented the term "toddler logic" to explain the contrary way they functioned; now I think I need to coin the term, "knitters' logic" to explain the way that all the thought processes of a knitter seem to lead to more yarn.