My daughter is quite a girly-girl. And while I will raise her to be strong and independent, I’m thoroughly enjoying her girly-ness. A couple of days ago she came home from day care upset because her plastic headband had broke. In an effort to cheer her up I asked if she would like me to make her a new one.

That didn’t work.

So I asked her if she’d like to help me choose the fabric.

She chose three.

Then she was happy.

Then she went somewhere else to play, and I sat down to sew.

Every year I make everyone winter hats. This year I made a giant load of hats for charity. But no hat for me… This year’s been exceptionally cold, and my ears are freezing off! My hair is finally long enough to wear up, but that’s not really convenient for a hat. So instead, I decided to make an ear warmer.

I wanted it to be fast (as always) and warm, which I would normally do with bulky yarn, but my stash is severly depleted (yey! an excuse to go buy more yarn!) and I did not want to go out in the pouring cold rain to buy more. Instead, I decided to make it with 2 strands of worsted weight yarn crocheted together, and get a nice wintery ombre effect while I was at it.

So lets get our hooks crocheting and our ears warm!

Storage. Storage. Storage. Storage.

I think that if you’re a crafter, you can never have enough of it. There’s always more yarn to buy, a bag of fiberfill you can’t find room for, or scrap fabrics you know you will need some day.

I was almost done organizing my craft space (it’s always a WIP, but almost done this stage), I was only missing a few boxes to store said fabric and yarn in. What I really wanted were folding boxes, the type they have at Target – but there is no Target here, and IKEA didn’t have the right shape and color for what I wanted. I did not want to make them, and I put in a lot of effort trying to find ready made ones but couldn’t. So, I was left with no choice but to make them myself.

I wanted quick and easy, no lining, no interfacing, no hemming and ironing (saving that kind of work for the “good” stuff), so I decided to make them out of some nice, thick felt. You would think that would at least be easy, but apparently – for those of us who live in the land of over priced milk and honey, it was not so easy and I ended up ordering the felt all the way from China.

So, while this post is titled “10 Minute Felt Boxes”, the correct title would be: “Weeks and Weeks of Trying to Avoid Making These Myself and One Month Waiting for the Felt To Arrive and Then Only 10 Minutes to Make Each Box”. And here’s how:

I was looking for a place to put my iron inside my sewing space, in a convenient way: It shouldn’t take up any room on the desktop, and keep the leg space interruption to a minimum. It would have to have easy access to electricity, but not be plugged in all the time (safety first!). I wanted something cheap, so I wasn’t going to get something custom made, and even though it’s on my long term wish list, I don’t do much any carpentry, so making it myself was not an option.

When in doubt: IKEA.

I looked through all of their office and living room and kids furniture and found nothing which was narrow enough, short enough, tall enough etc. Eventually, I stumbled upon the OLTEDAL nightstand. I looked over the measurements and instructions very carefully, and the very next day stopped by the IKEA near me and bought it.

I assembled it without inserting the back because (1) I wanted easy access to be able to plug in the iron and (2) I wanted to use the back as a pressing board for small items. It obviously won’t be enough for making large items, but for small blocks which need pressing – it would save me a lot of fuss getting the ironing board out.

I got the idea here, and here’s how it’s done (it’s really quite simple):

I am way to pleased with myself for naming the pattern Buckinghamigurumi (try saying that 10 times fast). Aaaaaaaand, I’m over it. Let’s get on with the post.

My friend Racheli is celebrating 10 years of blogging (10 years! wow!), and in honor of this occasion, she asked 10 bloggers to write a post inspired by her (or her blog).

I met Racheli online, I’m sure it was through facebook somehow, but my memory is terrible, I’m not exactly sure of the details. She was nice enough to invite me to a celebration of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. Although we live in Israel, Racheli loves everything and anything British, and the party was incredible. If you follow this link, you’ll see the amazing decorations and excellent food (the text is in Hebrew, but the pictures speak for themselves).

When she asked me to contribute to her “10 years of blogging, 10 days of inspiration” project, I started in another direction (I was thinking a Hagrid costume, because of the geeky aspect of her blog), but when this idea hit me – I just knew it was the right thing!

By the way, all the pictures of London in this post were taken in 2004, before I even had a digital camera. The quality is so-so, but I figured since I have the pictures it would be a crime not to use them. Right?

So, let’s get started.

I don’t know about you, but I dislike color changes in crochet-in-the-round intensely. I just hate (a strong word, I know, but still) the way the new color “bites” into the old color making a jagged and obvious border. I just HAD to find a solution to the problem.

So I huffed, and I puffed and I… No, wait. There was no actual huffing or puffing, I set my mind and crochet hook to the task, and figured it out.

Somehow we’ve managed to dodge the bullet until now. But when we acquired a tablet, my kids discovered Angry Birds, and now they can often be found with their heads stuck in a small (that’s my phone) or medium (that’s the tablet) screen, playing until I’ve had enough-and-go-do-something-constructive-now-please.

We’ve got all the free and paid versions, and my son fell in love with the Ice Angry Bird in Angry Birds Space. So, being the drive for much of my craftiness, he asked for me to make him one. And, of course, I agreed.

Wahoooooo! Here we go!

When my sister was born I noticed that babies spend much more time playing with the tags on toys than with the actual toys. Even at that young age (this was 1998, and I was 16 at the time) I thought that there should be toys made entirely from tags! What a stroke of genius! Well, apparently it was a good idea, because somebody else thought of it, and tag blankets are now sold everywhere. I even got one from my mother when my own daughter was born.

But! I will not let such a small thing hinder my creative efforts! And when the chance came, I realized that tag blankets are a quick and easy baby gift, and – being handmade – much appreciated. I made a few from scrap fabric I had lying around before realizing I had lovely scraps left over from the soft baby blocks I shared with you last post, and that this would be a perfect use for them.

So, here we go.

I love precuts. They’re like getting a selection of chocolates, each one tasty on it’s own, but together – a celebration of sweets! And, unlike eating all those chocolates, precuts don’t have a single calorie in them. Obviously, precuts are more expensive per-yard, but I wouldn’t buy that many yards of fabric… Instead, I get a large selection of various fabrics and get to enjoy all of the patterns (and solids).

For this project I used a charm pack from the Moda Lollipop Collection (42 5” pieces), I got it from Fabric.com, but it’s been a while and I’m not sure if it’s still available.

You’ll need 36 pieces for making 6 blocks, but don’t throw away the scraps! We’ll be using them for part 2 of this project – a matching tag blanket. We’ll also use 4 more pieces for the back of the tag blanket, but that’s not strictly necessary, you can use other fabric if you like (I often use minky).

Aren’t those colors great?

So, let’s get started!

Yes, I realize that it’s 2013. However, this hat was made for my boy in September, I was just busy with the blog redesign and didn’t have time to post about it. I was sure I would be finished by November, but, well, that didn’t happen. So even though it’s 2013 now it wasn’t back then, and 2013 will have it’s own winter hats post (or, more likely, posts).

My little girl is still young enough that I get to decide which hat to make (it was the rainbow hat this year), but my son decides for himself what he wants, and it’s up to me to make it happen.

So, shark it is. I call it “Jump the Shark” because my geeky side thinks it’s funny. But I think it’s cute even if you don’t get the reference. What do you think?

I used a mix of techniques I used in previous tutorials, but for your ease I’m copy-pasting all the instructions.