Sublime stitching

Mary called on a lovely day last fall to say that her neighbor was having a rummage sale with lots and lots of yarn. On the way home from Minneapolis when she called, I went the next day and was, frankly, disappointed. Sure, there was plenty of yarn, but most of it was acrylic blend worsted weight. Not something I was really interested in. Still, at a buck a ball, it was worth looking closely at the offerings and picking up a few interesting things.

One such interesting tidbit was a rather bright raspberry ball of Sublime. A very soft little ball I just could not resist. I could, I reasoned, work it into something else for a spot of color. Well, this week it became a hat. All on its own. The yarn was an absolute delight to work with (O.K., with a tendency to split a bit, it's not perfect, but it's darned close). A blend of merino, silk and cashmere, its name, Sublime, is an understatement; this yarn is beautiful. The little drop stitch hat pattern I used called for 120 yards. The Sublime label claimed the ball contained 127 yards. Should I know better than to cut it that close? Yes. But did I go ahead and start the hat anyway? Look at the picture (Matt's new scarf is the background). I started it and finished it. Not only that, the almost always dependable nose to fingertip measuring method showed I had approximately 7 yards of yarn left when I finished the hat. Remarkable!

The hat went together quickly and left me a little sorry that I didn't have more Sublime. But only a little. Katy will receive a new hat that will work with the scarf she received last fall -- or at the very least give her some tactile pleasure -- and I had the thrill of working with an unusually delightful yarn. Maybe that's plenty to ask of just one dollar. Besides, Alyssa is looking for an off-white hat and I have some lovely alpaca ...