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Ombre Crochet Ear Warmer Tutorial

December 31, 2013
In: Crochet
Ombre Crochet Ear Warmer Tutorial | Oomanoot

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!

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10 Minute DIY Felt Boxes

December 19, 2013
In: Sewing
Oomanoot | 10 Minute DIY Felt Boxes

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:

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Winter Hats 2013

December 2, 2013
In: Crochet
Winter Hats 2013

Every year around September I realize that it’s almost winter and my kids’ winter hats will not make themselves. I rush ahead and make hats, and then winter doesn’t actually come. It’s December and we’re still having sandstorms and hardly any rain.

Before this year I would ask my son which hat he wanted, and choose what I ever I felt like for my daughter. This year, she suddenly developed a strong 3 year old opinion and wouldn’t listen to any of my suggestions. He chose a spiderman hat, so she must have a spiderman hat.

Spiderman Crochet Hats

I used a variation from Little Things Blogged on Spiderweb Beanie Pattern by It’s Just Jennifer.

While I was waiting for winter to arrive and put the hats I made to use, I came across a charitable project to crochet hats for cancer patients. I had recently seen a campaign requesting hair donations to make wigs. My hair is not long enough to be useful, but crocheting hats would be perfect. It’s nice doing something I like for a good cause.

The hats needed to be done by the end of November, so I decided to make them all with bulky yet soft yarn, so I could get as many done as quickly as possible. These would work well if you need to make some last minute gifts as well.

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