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Hands Occupied

Colorful knitting, crochet, latch hook and macrame from craft book author & designer Heidi Gustad.

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Announcing the Exquisite Mystery Knit Along!

December 27, 2016 3 Comments

Join the Exquisite Mystery Knit Along starting January 1. Designed collaboratively by three designers: Heidi Gustad, Christopher Salas & Sarah Abram, this knit along is not to be missed!

What happens when three knitwear designers come together to create a mystery knit along design? Lots of fun, it turns out. Fellow designer Sarah Abram (aka sarahbearcrafts) approached Christopher Salas (aka alternaknit) and I several months ago with a proposal: help design a pattern where each of us is given three balls of yarn and two weeks to design a third of a finished pattern. Inspired by the exquisite corpse storytelling model, each designer would build on the previous designers’ section, not knowing at ALL what to expect from the other sections until the finished designs were in their inboxes. Kind of crazy, right?

Yes, yes it was totally crazy, but it was also the most satisfying creative collaboration I’ve ever been lucky enough to be a part of! At the end of the design process, we all got together in Chicago (Sarah’s and my home turf) to shoot some photos of each of our finished pieces, to shoot videos with tips for success and behind the scenes tidbits about our clues, and of course, to edit the pattern as a whole. Here’s the first little video that may be familiar to Facebook followers.

That’s right! Preorders of the Exquisite Mystery Knit Along pattern are open now through January 1 for just $5 before jumping to $7 when the first clue drops. Here’s the schedule we put together for this knit along:

January 1 – Clue 1 by Heidi Gustad/me drops
January 8 – Clue 2 by Christopher Salas goes live
January 15 – Clue 3 by Sarah Abram is published, completing the pattern

All three of us designers will be active on the Ravelry thread for the duration of the KAL, ready to help answer all of your questions. I’ll also be releasing video tutorials for the particularly tricky stitches on my YouTube channel throughout the process, and all will be available on this playlist if you’d like to bookmark it to get ahead on things. :)

How to get ready for the #exquisiteMKAL

Speaking of getting ahead on things, there are a few things you can do besides bookmarking the Ravelry thread & playlist. Before we cast on January 1, pick out your yarn and swatch! We recommend 3 skeins of Dream in Color Jilly with Cashmere or Jilly, in a light color, a dark color, and a bright color. Swatch with the dark color to make sure you choose the right needle for your project! (Spoiler but important: we built enough yardage into the design to accommodate swatching with the dark color. Gauge is important only with regard to yardage. Knit a swatch of stockinette in DC and gently wet block it to measure your gauge.) For now, this is all I can tell you, but soon, all will be revealed!

Join the Exquisite Mystery Knit Along starting January 1. Designed collaboratively by three designers: Heidi Gustad, Christopher Salas & Sarah Abram, this knit along is not to be missed!

Yarn support for this design was provided by Dream in Color yarn. To learn more about the Exquisite Mystery Knit Along and get tips for choosing color combinations before the first clue goes live, check out the Exquisite Mystery KAL Ravelry Thread and preorder the pattern here.

Filed Under: Knit Along, Knitting, Knitting & Crochet Tagged With: alternaknit, christopher salas, dream in color, exquisite mystery knit along, exquisitemkal, handsoccupied, knit along, mkal, sarah abram, sarahbearcrafts

About Heidi

Heidi Gustad is a craft book author, designer & creator specializing in yarn crafts like knitting, crochet, latch hook & macramé. Her first book, Latch Hook: 12 Projects for the Modern Maker, is out now.

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Comments

  1. Sarah Abram

    December 27, 2016 at 9:03 am

    So excited!!!

    Reply
  2. Kelly davis

    December 27, 2016 at 11:04 am

    Cant wait have three Cashmere jilly grey,purple DC, teal. Love mystery kal.

    Reply
    • Heidi

      January 9, 2017 at 11:25 am

      Those colors sound amazing! (and pretty close to what I designed with too!)

      Reply

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Heidi Gustad from Hands Occupied / Craft Book Author and Knitting, Crochet, Latch Hook and Macrame Designer

Hi! I’m Heidi (she/her/hers), a craft book author & pattern designer specializing in knitting, crochet, latch hook & macrame. Really anything with yarn! ❤️  My work combines vintage and modern design elements, featuring bold colors and graphic motifs.

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handsoccupied

Craft book author, designer & creator specializing in yarn crafts like knitting, crochet, latch hook & macramé
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Heidi Gustad 🧶✂️
If only knitting a whole project took 39 seconds… 😮‍💨 
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In this video, you can see how the Intarsia Flower Pillow pattern knits up - two flat panels, one with intarsia, both are blocked, and then they’re seamed. Find the pattern on @hi.ravelry & my website, just search Intarsia Flower Pillow. 🌸 
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P.S. I’m really smiling in this video while seaming the pillow, so I guess I’m proving last week’s claim that I truly enjoy that sometimes-dreaded task. 😆🫣
In knitting, a Left Lifted Increase (LLI) lets you In knitting, a Left Lifted Increase (LLI) lets you add a stitch in between two columns of stitches that leans to the left. Similar to an M1L, LLIs allow you to increase nearly invisibly.
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To learn more about lifted increases, including when to use them and how they differ from Make 1s, head to the 🔗 in my profle. 
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Have you ever used lifted increases? I used M1’s almost exclusively for a long time when I needed to inc between stitches, but when I designed the Intarsia Flower Pillow pattern, I needed something that would allow me to increase a lot near my cast on, and M1’s resulted in edge curling. The more you know! 🌈 
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Yarn: @lionbrandyarn Wool Ease from my Stash / Neddles: @boyeyarncrafts - Just remembered these are the needles I learned to knit on at age 8. 😂
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#handsoccupied #knitting #learntoknit #howtoknit #sweaterknitting #knitinspiration #knittersofinstagram #liftedincreases
Last week I got to hang out with my family & helpe Last week I got to hang out with my family & helped babysit my red-headed niece and nephew. So here’s some plane knitting, and a couple pictures (shared with permission) of my babysitting adventures.
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Lessons learned: 1️⃣ Trying to knit around 2 toddlers, 2 cats & 2 large dogs is pretty hard. 2️⃣ I learned during water color time that pink and black make “colorful black.” 🩷🖤 3️⃣ Toddlers do NOT care about your rainbow sorting of their toys. 4️⃣ Toddlers are very good at finding mischief in a very short amount of time, what a surprise. 😂
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#handsoccupied #knitting #placesyoucanknit #knitters #knitinpublic #handmadelife #knitting_inspiration
Weaving in ends & seaming with mattress stitch are Weaving in ends & seaming with mattress stitch are both so useful for garment knitting! But for me, weaving in ends can feel like a chore while the latter feels like I’ve successfully done magic. 🧙🏻‍♀️ Does anybody else run into this phenomenon? Are you the opposite? Any theories as to why they feel different? 
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In this video, I’m finishing my brand new Intarsia Flower Pillow. 🌸 I’m working with @universal_yarn Uni Merino & the pattern is available at the 🔗 in my b1o. 
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#handsoccupied #intarsiaflowerpillow #intarsia #intarsiaknitting #knitting #colorwork #knitpillow #knittinginspiration #knittersofinstagram
I independently released a knitting pattern today, I independently released a knitting pattern today, my first in 5 years! The Intarsia Flower Pillow is a 16” (40cm) round pillow knit with an intentional combination of intarsia, stockinette, garter and seed stitch. This pillow has everything you need to level up your intarsia technique while also knitting something you can use. 
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This pillow allows you to practice knitting intarsia while simultaneously increasing and decreasing. The Intarsia Flower Pillow pattern was designed to be a little knit-nerdy for learning and a little cute, arming you with many of the skills you'd need to knit an intarsia sweater. 
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Intarsia Flower Pillow is available in the Hands Occupied Sh0p and on @hi.ravelry . You can read more about the pattern on the bl0g, the🔗 are where you’d think.
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YARN: @universal_yarn Uni Merino in Antiquity, Fjord and Conch / NEEDLES: US 2 (2.75 mm) / PATTERN: Intarsia Flower Pillow by Heidi Gustad
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