Calvin is still right

My mother-in-law was the most frugal person I've ever known. She cut open large potato chip bags and used them as a cutting board, and did the same with those hard plastic liners inside packages of bacon. She chopped up her old panty hose (remember those?!) to make stuffing for knit toys, and her garden bed was rich from the addition of egg shells, coffee grounds and banana peels. Who needed to go buy Miracle Grow?

The first time I heard the saying, "Use it up, wear it out, make it do, do without' was from her lips. 

I found out later it originated with President Calvin Coolidge,  to ensure enough supplies for the soldiers fighting in WWI. That was also the origination of meatless Monday and wheatless Wednesday. 

A year ago I began knitting a sock, then set it down, and left it. Every time I'd come back to it, I was unsure of where I was in the pattern, so I set it back down, again. This fall I decided to pick it up, figure it out and finish it. The foot of the sock turned out beautiful, and fit my foot like a glove. I was so pleased with how the Kitchener stitch turned out on the end of the toe. However the part of the sock covering my ankle was baggy. So I tried to shrink it, which didn't work. It was still too baggy. 

I started knitting the other sock that would match, and this time my stitching had changed. It was immediately clear that the ankle portion of this sock was only 2/3 the width of the other one. A good thing, except that the other sock was never going to work with the new one. My ankle was nowhere near big enough to fill the first sock. 

I tried unraveling the sock to reuse the yarn, and it kept turning into one big tangle. I chopped and pulled and picked at it, but it just wasn't happening. 

Eventually I ended up with the toe of the sock, being about three or four inches tall, and it dawned on me.....

It makes a perfect snow hat for the doll I keep at our home for our granddaughters to play with. 

Deep in my heart I believe Calvin and my mother-in-law would approve heartily.