Hat-to-Purse Reinvention Idea

Here's a reinvention / recycling project to try.

Go to a thrift store and buy a cheap, ugly, 100% wool knit hat. Felt the hat. (Look up felting instructions on internet.)

Sew straps and zipper into hat in coordinating colors, total cost: $3.00.

Use purse, and when people ask if you made it, say "Yes!"

The one I have here was not a "cheap" or "ugly" thrift store hat to begin with -- my friend C. knitted it. Then she felted it and hated the results. I rescued it from the trash and made the purse you see here.

I used inexpensive nylon webbing by-the-yard from a craft store for the straps and bought a zipper in the exact same color.

(And C., whenever anyone asks me if I made it, I always tell them that you did the knitting, of course.)

Ugly Turtle No More - a Reinvention Project

I bought this Club Monaco 100% wool turtleneck at a thrift store this past week intending to poach the yarn. It's very very soft for a non-fancy wool. But then I was captivated by a nifty snap at the bottom hem, and gave the thing another gander. It had some strange crusty stuff on it from it's previous life, but nothing I couldn't wash off, and the fabric was in perfect condition. I slipped it on and voila--excellent sweater hiding beneath a dreadful turtleneck.*

(*My significant-other-person MAP insists that turtlenecks have their valuable place. He would refer my readers to his freshman year French teaching assistant at UNC, Miss J., who apparently redefined the meaning of "romance language" for her young male students via the snug turtlenecks she would wear to class.)

No problem, I thought. I might not know how to knit, but I sure know how to take knitting apart. I removed the turtleneck and then wound the yarn onto my ball winder.*

(*MAP has named the ball winder "Harry.")

Then, starting at the back where the stitches were in nice, lined up loops, I crocheted through each loop using a 2.75mm hook and the poached turtle-yarn. (This is the only turtle-poaching this blogger approves of.) Working in a circle, I made five tiny rows. The wool still needs to be blocked to smooth out the work, but now there's a scoopneck I'll wear.

The turtleneck had been sewn on abruptly and left some jagged edges in the front. Because the knit loops weren't lined up, but rather fell diagonally, I folded over the rather tattered material and just, well, invented a row of crochet stitches across the knitting. This seemed to work fine.

***If anyone has any better ideas for this step in the process, PLEASE post them. Or please post if you have any ideas for how I might do up this neckline.*

(*If anyone suggests "scalloping" I'll delete the post. No turtles. No scallops. Okay?)