DIY Life

These are in no particular order, because it's difficult enough to narrow a long list down to ten worthy sites, blogs, and communities without having to rank those ten once you've arrived at them. Between these ten sites (and a few also-rans), there's something for almost everyone.

• Craftster - Initially tagged as a craft site for hipsters ("No tea cozies without irony"), Craftster has emerged as one of the web's most popular, varied, and busy craft communities. Any craft topic you can imagine, and probably a few that haven't crossed your mind, has been addressed by Craftster members, at almost every possible level of workmanship. And they've probably written a tutorial about it, too.
• Etsy - An online mall stocked with handmade goods, patterns, and craft supplies. People sold their crafts on the Internet before Etsy came along -- via eBay, their own sites, and private sales, all places where such items can get lost in the shuffle -- but this site seems to have hit the magic combination that allows its sellers to be successful.
• MAKE and CRAFT - Both are magazines from beloved tech publisher O'Reilly, but it's their blogs that will probably be of most interest to anyone reading this list. CRAFT started out as a MAKE subcategory, then grew into its own thing. MAKE skews electronic, but still has the occasional bit of craft content worth checking out, and CRAFT includes occasional projects with LEDs.

Want to see the rest? They're after the break!

• Knitty - The first and the best. There were good knitting sites on the web before Knitty came along, but nothing quite like this free, fashionable quarterly online magazine. Notable for its friendly editorial tone and ability to create massive trends among knitbloggers (example: Clapotis). Similar site: The pattern-only, monthly MagKnits.
• CrochetMe - What Knitty is to knitters, only for crocheters, and with the addition of an unnecessarily complicated archiving system. (Seriously, I love this site, but I hate looking for something from a back issue. It's undergoing a major redesign, so this may change.) The editor is now also the editor of Interweave Crochet magazine.
• Interweave - The best mainstream publisher of craft magazines, with many free pattern downloads, some of which are web-exclusive. "You get what you pay for" is not a maxim that applies here: all are of high quality. They cover jewelry design, quilting, knitting, crochet, needlework, spinning, mixed-media art, and more.
• DIY Network - Not everyone has the opportunity to watch this cable/satellite channel's craft shows, like Jewelry Making, Knitty Gritty, Creative Juice, and Craft Lab, but you can go to the site for plentiful free patterns and tutorials. Every episode of every show has a project page with all the instructions you'll need. In some cases, these patterns are exclusive excerpts from popular books.
• Instructables - Step-by-step tutorials for absolutely everything. Unlike some of the sites on this list, Instructables has lots of tech hacks, along with more traditional craft projects.
• On My Desk - No tutorials here. Not even much craft content, per se. This is a blog where creative people of all kinds show off their work-spaces. Get jealous? No: get inspired.
• SuperNaturale - The Glitter community, once housed at GetCrafty but now at SuperNaturale, has been important to younger craft enthusiasts since the late 1990s. Many have moved on to Craftster or to Livejournal's Craftgrrl community, but Glitter lives on.

A few more great sites that came close to making the list:

• CraftMemo - The sole purpose of this site is to help you organize your crafting by keeping track of your inventory, favorite suppliers, and projects.
• Ravelry - This high-buzz site might have made this list if it were open, but it isn't, and I have not in fact been able to use it yet. It promises to help users keep track of fiber art projects and supplies, like CraftMemo does, but with an added social networking aspect. If it sounds good to you, you might as well get on the waiting list for an account.
• Threadbanger - A distinctly modern and edgy sewing site, with video tutorials, podcasts, a blog, and more.

So how did we do -- did we miss your favorite site? Let us know in the comments!