How to: Make a Snowflakes-and-Oranges Window Hanging

I'm off to run a bunch of errands this morning. (Ugh -- DMV, anyone?) In the meantime, I'll leave you with a rerun of a fun and simple holiday craft project from last year, in case any of you missed it:

Atomic Garden, one of my favorite shops here in Oakland, has the prettiest window displays. Just like the store itself, they're simple, natural, and lovely.

The eco-friendly housewares-and-clothing boutique's current window candy is a clever and beautiful assemblage of crocheted snowflakes, yarn pom-poms, and dried oranges hung from a gently gnarled tree branch.

Here's how to make one of your own -- perfect for dressing a window for the holidays or simply brightening up the view during the dreary winter days ahead.

You'll need:
* A tree branch measuring three-quarters of an inch or more in diameter and about the width of the window you want to hang it in. (Pick up a fallen branch the next time you're out for a walk or a hike, save one when you trim your trees, or buy one from a floral-supply shop or online.)

* Two to three ceiling hooks for suspending the branch. (You could also slip the branch into wall-mounted curtain brackets.)

* A spool of fine twine, waxed cord, or fishing line.

* A large, sturdy needle, such as an embroidery or darning needle.

* A selection of crocheted snowflakes. (You can create your own if you're especially crafty or simply use cloth doilies -- I spotted several for a couple bucks apiece at my local fabric store yesterday -- paper snowflakes made from medium- to heavyweight paper, or snowflake-shaped ornaments.)

* Fabric starch or craft glue.

* A section of golfball- to tennis-ball-sized pom-poms. (Make your own with yarn, craft them from tissue paper, pick up a bag of fuzzy pom-poms at a craft store, or simply substitute a few white ball ornaments.)

* Dried orange slices. (They're easy to make at home, or you can buy them from a specialty grocer. Dried pineapple slices would also work.)

Instructions:
* Screw the hooks into the ceiling, making sure they're anchored well. Loop lengths of twine, cord, or fishing line over the hooks, tying them securely. Tie the other ends around the tree branch so that it hangs across the top of your window. (Or simply remove the curtain rod from the window and slip the ends of the branch into the curtain brackets.)

* Depending on the width of your branch and how many snowflakes, pom-poms, and oranges you want to hang, tie several lengths of cord around the branch with the ends trailing down. Vary the lengths randomly so that the longest hits the bottom of the window and the others are shorter.

* If you're using cloth snowflakes or doilies, douse them with laundry starch or dab them with craft glue mixed with a bit of water and pin them flat so that they dry stiff.

* Once they're dry, tie the snowflakes onto the cord at varying heights.

* Using your sturdy needle with the cord threaded through, hang the pom-poms at varying heights. If your window is wider than it is tall, one pom-pom per length of cord is fine. If the window is tall and narrow, hang a few pom-poms from each cord, spacing them out randomly and tying the cord beneath each to keep it in place. (If you're using ball ornaments, simply thread the cord through the loop at the top of the ornament and tie it securely.)

* Finally, thread the remaining lengths of cord with orange slices. Poke the threaded needle through the flesh of the orange near the top and tie the cord to hold the orange slices in place.

Enjoy!

(Thanks to Jamie and Erin at Atomic Garden for walking me through this.)

Readers: If you have a simple DIY project to share, send me photos and instructions and I'll be happy to feature it here!

How to: Make a Felted Bowl

I think Katie Egeland, who has a wonderful blog about knitting and other adventures called If Time Exists, got tired of me swooning over felted bowls on Etsy and recently wrote in encouraging me to try felting a bowl myself.

When I confessed that I had no idea how to felt, and that I'm a newbie knitter to boot, Katie assured me that it's pretty straightforward and thoughtfully provided these step-by-step instructions:

"Any natural animal fiber will work for felting. Wool is the most commonly used material and will give you nice results for a felted bowl. Just make sure the wool hasn't been treated to be machine washable (called 'superwash'), because then it won't felt.

You can use any weight of wool, though bulkier wools will make a thicker, sturdier bowl. You'll need needles that are a few sizes bigger than normally recommended for the yarn you're using. For the bowl pictured above, I used Freedom Wool (a bulky weight) and size 15 needles. You'll be using 16-inch circular needles as well as double-pointed needles in the same size.

You'll need to know how to cast on, make a knit stitch, knit in the round, knit on double-pointed needles, and decrease your stitches using 'ssk' (slip slip knit) and 'k2tog' (knitting two stitches together). If you're unfamiliar with some of these techniques or with using different types of needles, check out Knitting Help, which has tons of free, helpful, step-by-step videos that will bring you up to speed.

Cast on 45 stitches using your circular needles. Join and work in the round. Don't turn the work -- simply knit the stitches in a circle, creating a tube as you go. Knit until the tube is six or seven inches long. If you want a deeper bowl, continue knitting until your tube is a little longer. Keep in mind that the felting process shrinks the fabric more length-wise than it does width-wise.

Decreasing:
Round 1: *ssk, k5, k2tog. Repeat from * to end. 35 stitches remain.
Round 2: Knit.
Round 3: *ssk, k3, k2tog. Repeat from * to end. 25 stitches remain.
Round 4: Knit.

Now switch to your double-pointed needles. Put ten stitches on the first needle, five on the second, and ten on the third. Use the fourth to knit stitches off of each needle (one at a time).

Round 5: *ssk, k1, k2tog. Repeat from * to end. 15 stitches remain.
Round 6: K2tog 7 times, k1. 8 stitches remain.

Cut yarn and thread through remaining stitches with a tapestry needle. Tighten and weave in ends. Now you're ready to felt!

The keys to felting are agitation and hot water. You can felt in the washing machine -- Knitty has a really good article about how to do that. But I live in an apartment building with coin washers, so I felt by hand in the sink.

Start by filling the sink about halfway with really hot water, adding a little dish or laundry detergent. I wear rubber gloves so I don't destroy my hands.

Then have at it! Swirl your bowl around, rub it, squeeze it, beat it up. Sometimes I use a wooden spoon for variety. Just be really rough with it. You'll know the felting has started when the wool begins to fuzz up and blur the stitches.

Periodically during the process, fill a bowl with ice cubes and cold water and soak the knitting in there for a minute. Then refill your sink with fresh hot water. The drastic temperature changes help the felting along.

It usually takes at least a good half hour of work to felt a piece of knitting to the point I like for a bowl. The more you felt, the less visible the stitches and the stiffer the resulting material will be.

When you're happy with the amount that your bowl has felted, squeeze out the excess water without twisting. Roll the bowl up in a towel and step on it to get more of the water out. Then take it out and stretch it into shape over an upside-down bowl. Leave it to dry -- and voila, a felted bowl!"

Thanks so much, Katie! I need to head over to Knitting Help (which really is an awesome site for beginning knitters like me) to study up on those decreasing techniques, but I'm definitely going to attempt this. And if any of you try your hand at a felted bowl, please let me know how it goes!

(P.S. Have a D.I.Y. project of your own you'd like to show off? I'd love to share it here. Just e-mail me a snap or two, plus instructions.)

Cool Tool: Foldschool

Here's an interesting weekend project for you crafty types with kids: Making children's furniture from cardboard.

Thanks to Foldschool, you can download free plans for crafting playroom stools, chairs, and rockers from those leftover moving boxes that are gathering dust in the garage.

Each design is rated for difficulty, time required, and the stability of the resulting piece as well as the age it's appropriate for.

Get schooled right here.

How to: Make Silhouette Portraits

My sister-in-law, Valerie, and her husband, Jack, are two of the most creative people I know: Jack makes movies (and awesome birthday videos for his nieces and nephews), and Valerie builds bookshelves from scratch, makes her own upholstered headboards, sews the most amazing quilts, and creates the lushest container gardens you've ever seen.

Seriously, these two inspire me to live more creatively, adventurously, and thoughtfully every single day. I'm so lucky to have them in my family.

Here, they share step-by-step instructions for their latest DIY project: Making Photoshop silhouette portraits of their four furkids ... uh, I mean cats. But you can follow these steps to create silhouettes of just about anything you choose -- your pet, your kid, even an inanimate object (I might try my mouse at a few botanical silhouettes, for instance):

"* Using a digital camera, photograph your subject from the side. It's best to shoot against a white wall or a white posterboard to make it easier to digitally remove the background during the next step.

* Open the picture in Photoshop. Use the Magic Wand tool to select the background for removal. Once clicked, the background will be outlined and highlighted. Go to 'edit' and click 'cut.' The background will disappear.

* Now go to 'image' and click 'adjustments.' Select 'desaturate' to remove all color.

* In 'adjustments,' select 'brightness/contrast.' Lower the brightness and increase the contrast until your image takes the form of a silhouette.

* If the image isn't completely silhouetted, use the Paintbucket tool (with black as the color selection) to fill in as needed, placing the cursor dead center and clicking until your desired effect is achieved.

* Using the Image tool, select 'image size' to set your desired dimensions.

* Save your silhouette as a JPEG file.

* Burn the file to a CD and take it to your favorite photo-printing or copy shop (or simply use on online printing service like Shutterfly or Kodak Gallery), printing it on whatever paper or card stock you choose.

* If you want greater depth or thickness or a different background color, augment the printed image with paint.

* Trim the edges of the finished silhouette as needed and place it in the frame of your choosing. We used the black oval Ung Drill frame from IKEA that we then painted gold."

Thanks so much, guys -- I love how digital cameras and photo-editing tools can help even us non-artistic types unleash our inner creative spirit. (Next, I want a how-to for making that beautiful headboard ... )

Readers: If you have a simple DIY project to share, send me photos and instructions and I'll be happy to feature it here!