It’s November, almost December really. But it’s not cold. Global warming anyone? Nah, just one of those years when winter is really late. But I am ignoring the weather, because it’s that time of year: the time for making winter hats.

This hat can be made in as many colors as you want, I made one in a solid color with a bulky yarn and one in two colors in worsted weight yarn, but you could go zebra with black & white or full circus tent with as many colors as you like. I’ve included instructions for worsted weight to fit an adult, but the pattern can be easily adjusted to fit any size head.

This little piggy went to market, this little piggy stayed home and crocheted. This little piggy hasn’t really had much inspiration lately and totally let the blog slide. I’ve made a few things here and there, but just wasn’t feeling it was blog material. And then this little piggy came along, and isn’t he the cutest little piggy? So quick and easy to make, my favorite kind of project! So here we are. A new tutorial.

Look! more camel stitch! I just love the faux knit rib effect, it works so beautifully on a large scale piece such as this.

This blanket took me ages to finish because I started out making it super-super bulky, crocheting 3 strands of bulky weight yarn together – but I ended up not liking how it felt. It was just too heavy. So I unraveled it and re-crocheted it all over again with a single strand. Now it’s nice and warm and it’s almost summer here so I won’t have much to do with it for a while, but it’s really pretty to look at!

Personally, I think this pattern works best with a single color. I made it in white with a rather bulky. I found it made the knit pattern stand out just enough, without making the blanket too heavy.

I am entirely obsessed with camel stitch. Just, like, totally doing everything with camel stitch. It’s got that faux-knit-rib thing going for it, and it’s soft and stretchy and oh so fun and easy to crochet. I am making a nice camel stitch TV blanket to cuddle in on cold nights, but that will take a while so I must-must-must share this cute camel stitch cactus.

These make excellent last minute gifts, since they only take about an hour to make, and they are right on trend lately. If you skip crocheting the pot and buy a cute planter at the dollar store (or IKEA) they will take even less time and won’t be any less appreciated, I’m sure.

First things first, we must learn to how to camel stitch. It’s really quite easy.

How to: Camel Stitch

Basically, you start with a row of hdc (half double crochet). Chain 2, turn. Now, normally you would continue crocheting into the top of the stitch which is made of two loops (front and back loops). However, facing you there is a third loop which you’ve probably never noticed before, created by the hdc, just below the front loop (see picture). That’s where we’re going to insert our hook. This causes the top of the hdc to be pushed forward, and that’s what gives us the faux-knit-rib I mentioned before.

The thing about crochet, as opposed to knit, is getting a nice clear straight pattern is pretty near impossible, since the stitches form diagonal lines. This can be a good thing, sometimes, but when you’re trying to make a cat, well. That’s just not going to work.

However, there is an easy workaround. By crocheting a simple back and forth panel of single crochet, you can create a canvas for a cross stitch image of your choice. This can be done with any weight of yarn and made to any size, using any cross stitch pattern. I’ve included instructions for the cat pillow, but you could also cross stitch a hot air balloon, if you like. Just make sure that you’ve made enough stitches/rows to fit the number of stitches required by the cross stitch pattern.

The weather outside is frightful, at least by my mediterranean standards. The wind is howling and my feet are cold. And all I wanna do is cuddle inside a warm blanket, eat cookies and drink hot tea. Unfortunately, I made this afghan as a gift. But on the bright side, once I got past the first few rows I could actually crochet and cuddle inside it at the same time.

This afghan is quite easy to make, though I this one is quite large and it took me a couple of months to finish. There were weeks when I only crocheted two rows the entire week… life – it really gets in the way of crocheting.

So, let’s get all silly distractions like cooking and dishes out of the way, and make an afghan

OK. So this hat will probably get the hard core Star Wars fan really upset. Because it IS NOT an exact replica of R2-D2’s head (or whatever you’d like to call his top half). BUT, lucky for me – my son is either unaware of these nuances or doesn’t care as long as his head is warm. I guess you could say it’s good enough for Jar-Jar.

Wow, so many levels of bad puns, sorry!

This hat is made with bulky weight yarn, so it makes up for a speedy project, perfect for a quick gift. Beep-do-beep-boo, so let’s get started.

The first year I started making winter hats for the kids (well, it was one kid back then) I just went ahead and made it. No stress, no worries – it was just a fun way to pass the time. Then it became a “thing” that I do each year, and while it still was (and is!) fun – I knew that I had better get the requests as soon as possible to make sure I get all the orders done in time for cold weather.

For some reason, I kept missing the mark – having hats ready in September when everything is still smoldering hot in this part of the world, or being too late and having to use hats from last year for a few days (oh! the horror of hats of yester-year!).

This year, I was all ready with the bunny hat for my daughter (my son’s hat has it’s own story which will be told in a different post), but I was absolutely dreading writing up the tutorial. The crocheting was a breeze – but I was totally worried about the pictures. Taking good pictures of a hat when you are unwilling to show the model’s face online is pretty near impossible. Also, the short light hours make it difficult for me to get good lighting. Ugggh. But I think, given the circumstances, I have done rather well.

Taking a few moments to be proud – and on to the tutorial.

I am totally obsessed with hot air balloons. There, I said it. I think it started with the line “I’m a hot air balloon” etc. from “Happy” by Pharrell Williams (yeah, I know, it’s a cliché, but I do love that song). After that I bought this incredible dress titled “haute air balloons” from ModCloth (the people who name the items at ModCloth have the best job in the world!). I would be wearing that dress right now if I hadn’t gained a few pounds over the summer (I will start loosing them next week! I will, I will!). I even crocheted several hot air balloons, but they seem to have magically disappeared (floated away into space maybe?), so the post and pattern for those will have to wait a bit.

So, you may remember that I got a cross stitch phone cover for my birthday half a million years ago? I couldn’t decide what to embroider on it, so I waited and waited and waited and then bam! I realized that a hot air balloon would be perfect. I told you I’m obsessed.

A couple of years ago I made my son a King costume for Purim (a Jewish holiday where we dress up and eat a lot of candy – kind of like Halloween only with a “they tried to kill us, we survived, let’s eat” back story). Both kids have been using the costume for “Warrior King and Queen to protect the children from the terrible monsters” role playing, but it’s not easy when there’s only one cape & crown. My daughter has been bugging me for a while to make her a set, but I just haven’t got around to it (sound familiar?).

One day this week, we came home and she insisted I make her a crown and cape RIGHT NOW! And I said: OK! OK! I know I promised, but can I at least have a cup of coffee first?! I’m glad to say she went away for a few minutes and let me have my coffee in peace.

She chose the fabric (I’m not sure I would have gone for ALL PINK), and the whole thing was done in a couple of hours, so it could easily be a nap time project or done in one evening.

At least there are two swords, so I didn’t have to figure out how to DIY those… By the way, both swords are made of thick foam, and I recommend them very much for this kind of play – they are firm enough for fighting, but can’t really cause a serious injury (no pointy edges). They hurt when they hit you, though.