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

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Fun New Year’s Crafts!

January 2, 2011 Leave a Comment

I went to a small soiree at my friend Jessica’s on New Year’s Eve this year. We drank a bunch of interesting Michigan beers tasting-style, with everyone getting a few ounces of each beer at a time. As midnight approached, I realized we weren’t rocking any hats. Between the champagne, readily available sharpies (for marking our tasting cups) and disposable bowls, I decided to get my craft on. Here are the results, with me in the middle demonstrating the proper way to make a bowl hat stay on one’s head. The hat on the right reads Happy Meow Year and was made especially for my bff Erika.

;)

:)

NYE Craft #2: Champagne Cage Bistro Chairs

A lot of craft blogs have featured this project this week, so I thought I’d rescue the champagne cages from the party for this project. For the record, I’m not super fond of working with wire in general, but my handy needle-nose pliers were there to help. Click here for a video on how to make chairs like this from The Tamara Blog.

Supplies


The first chair I made was inspired by low-backed vanity chairs and was kind of a warming up process for me to get used to working with pretty strong wire.

I wanted to do something more interesting with my second chair, but to have enough wire to make the back of the chair more interesting, I had to make it three-legged. The pieces that make up the sides of the chair back were legs on the first chair I made.

To make the third chair leg and, I had to manually mimic the twists in the front two legs by folding the long wire in half and twisting it around a few times. At a certain point, I stopped twisting the wire around itself, so I ended up with a Y-shape. The tips of the Y-shape were then bent to fit in to the curved ends of the sides of the back.

The final piece I added was a bit of wire I had left over from cutting apart the cage at the beginning of the project. The biggest challenge I had in making this second chair was keeping the seat of the chair in place. With half of the would-be legs bent upward, the tension that kept the seat in place on the first chair was absent.

On a final note, there’s a champagne cage bistro chair contest by lilla a desgin. All you’ve got to do is email a photo of your creation to lilla.a.design(at)gmail.com. (She’s also got a how-to post sharing her method for making bistro chairs.)

Filed Under: How-to, New Year's Eve Tagged With: 2011, bistro project, bowl hats, chairs, champagne cages, needle nose pliers, new year's eve, nye, sharpie

About Heidi

Heidi Gustad is a craft book author & content creator in love with primary colors & vintage vibes. She specializes in knitting, crochet, latch hook and macramé, and her first book, Latch Hook: 12 Projects for the Modern Maker, is out now!

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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 & pattern designer ❤️💛💙
knitting, crochet, latch hook & macramé
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Please email for pattern support. 🧶

Heidi Gustad 🧶✂️
How to to knit throwing (a.k.a. English) style . How to to knit throwing (a.k.a. English) style 
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In knitting, there are a few common knitting styles. Most often you’re going to encounter continental style and English (throwing) style on your knitting journey. I recently had an old video teaching continental style get a lot of views. Based on the comments, it was clear the people wanted to also see a throwing tutorial, so here you go! 🧶
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Please note that there is a LOT of variation in knitting styles, and one isn’t necessarily better than another. Most often, I’ve found it comes down to two things: how you were taught and whether or not you’re really into colorwork knitting (which can involve a mix of styles). 
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Longer-term knitters who’ve made it this far: do you prefer one over the other? And why? 
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#handsoccupied #englishknitting #learntoknit #knitting #howtoknit #knittersofinstagram #knitting_inspiration
How to do a one-step provisional knitting cast on How to do a one-step provisional knitting cast on / a.k.a. crochet provisional cast on, scrap yarn cast on
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I read recently that tiktok and Instagram are being used as search engines more and more. 🤔 I thought since I’m going to all the work of making tutorials on YouTube, I should experiment with making a quick version of them for other platforms. There are obvious teaching limitations to vertical video, short-form content like this, but I think I covered the gist of this cast on in a minute. The YouTube version also covers how to unzip this cast on because there was time for it 👍🏻 L1nk is in my profile. 
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I’m very much looking for feedback as I continue to make instructional knitting & craft videos. Sometimes good tutorials are hard to find, and (ideally polite) feedback helps me improve. 
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#handsoccupied #provisionalcaston #knitting #knititngtutorial #knittersofinstagram #crochethook #knittingtutorial
For the first time in a long time, there’s a new For the first time in a long time, there’s a new tutorial from Hands Occupied! 🎉 The video is live on YouTube & the blog. 
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The post covers what provisional cast ons are & how they differ, and the video covers how to work a one-step provisional cast on using scrap yarn and a crochet hook. (This is a great one to save for future reference.)
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I learned several names for this method while researching this video & post. Crochet provisional cast on, one-step cast on, scrap yarn cast on - if you know even more names for this technique, please share! 
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#handsoccupied #provisionalcaston #knitting #scrapyarn #crochethook
Working on a sample for some upcoming videos. It’s an overcast day with intermittent sunshine & I have a scruffy little sidecar. 🐶 Can’t complain! 
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What’s on your needles this week? 
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Yarn: @debbieblissknits Cashmerino Aran 
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#handsoccupied #knitting #knittinglife
Peg boards and craft room organization go together Peg boards and craft room organization go together like peanut butter and jelly. So, as you can see, do latch hook tools and screwdriver organizers! 🪛 
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I think this trick translates to any tool with a thick handle, so leather working tools, punch needles, print making tools, etc. should work! What other tools am I, a needlecrafter, blanking on right now? 
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#craftorganization #handsoccupied #latchhook #latchhooking
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