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 spent a long time deciding what the title of this post should be. My family comes from the US, so in my American-English I should call this type of ball a soccer ball. But in Israel the sport is called football (translated into kadur-regel which means foot-ball), while the transliterated word “football” is reserved for American football. And calling it a Truncated Icosahedron, well – nobody would get that at all. I’m not even sure how to pronounce that second word.

I decided on soccer ball.

I don’t know if you’ve been following the 2014 FIFA World Cup, but in our house it’s the only thing happening. The TV has been taken over by the men of the house (one of them barely 7 years old) and I have retreated to a distant couch and sit on my own crocheting. Boo-hoo. Hopefully a crochet soccer ball will get me some attention around here!

It’s not quite officially summer, but the weather is hot and sunny, and ice cream has become one of the major food groups in our home. However, one can’t eat ice cream all day every day, as much as one may like to – so some crochet ice cream (with no calories) is in order.

They don’t require much yarn, so you can make a few in your favorite flavors. They can be used in a play kitchen, or string a few together as a summer party decoration. Or you could let your kids leave them lying on the floor around the house. That’s also an option.