My Brilliant Christmas Idea

The Green Woman was totally with me on this one.

I returned home from Thanksgiving to find that my mother had tucked a small bag filled with the items you see above into my suitcase. Mom has an unfortunate habit of sending me things she thinks I might want. Most of the time it's junk (seriously, old catalogs?) but this one was really weird.

Take a good look.

Do you recognize it?

That's right...it's a Princess Diana sweater from the 80's. Mom loved that sweater, but - like so many other women - never got very far on projects for herself. It didn't help that the thing was being made from a fine fingering weight yarn on 2.0 mm needles.

I laid the finished portion out on my bed with both reverence, and confusion. What was I supposed to do with this 20 + year old acrylic sweater piece?

The Green Woman peered over my shoulder, and started whispering ideas into my head.

I tinked back two rows, put the entire thing onto double points (three sizes bigger than Mom's needles - for those of you who like gauge curiosities), added an extra inch or so, did some rapid decreasing and then seamed up the side.

And...voila! a hat!

Mom was rather stunned - she initially thought I had knit the whole thing from scratch. Once she figured out how clever her daughter was (um, or her daughter's muse), she was delighted that her knitting had not gone to waste.

And a Christmas gift was made very easily.