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Hands Occupied

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

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How-to: Tie-Dye Topiary & Free eBook News

August 15, 2012 Leave a Comment

20120812-111929.jpg iLoveToCreate has a new, free eBook out today, all about tie dye proejcts. I was lucky enough to get my hands on a Tulip One-Step Tie-Dye Kit (pictured below and furnished by iLovetoCreate) to develop some tie-dye ideas of my own to celebrate the new eBook.

The iLoveToCreate team encouraged me to get extra creative and experiment with using tie dye on interesting materials. I spend a couple weeks percolating on what I could to, and came up with what I’m sharing today, a colorful topiary make with dowels, coffee filters, styrofoam and tie-dye dye.

Supplies

Tulip One-Step Tie-Dye Kit

coffee filters

washable bowls

waxed paper

staple gun

12″ dowels

stapler

2 styrofoam cubes

How-to: Tie Dye Topiary

Directions

Lay out some waxed paper to protect your work surface, and grab your tie-dye kit and mix the dye according to the package directions. Squirt a couple ounces of the dye colors of your choice into one bowl per color.

How-to: Tie Dye Topiary

How-to: Tie Dye Topiary How-to: Tie Dye Topiary

Divide coffee filters into several groups of 5 to 7. Wearing gloves to keep from dyeing your hands, dip the edges of one set of filters into a bowl of dye. Rotate the filters around, getting a little dye on all of the edges.

How-to: Tie Dye Topiary How-to: Tie Dye Topiary

How-to: Tie Dye Topiary

As you dye each set, rest each group, dyed edges down, on your waxed paper to dry. As you dye these, be careful not to ooverdo it. The paper sucks liquid right up, so a little goes a long way.

How-to: Tie Dye Topiary

How-to: Tie Dye Topiary

When the filters are dry, group them into sets of 3 filters, arranging them by color as you see fit. Here’s the arrangement I used.

How-to: Tie Dye Topiary

With each of your sets of three sheets, fold them three times over and secure with a staple. Then, ruffle the stapled packet, like this:

How-to: Tie Dye Topiary

How-to: Tie Dye Topiary

Staple the packets close together on a 12 to 18-inch dowel using a staple gun. Stab the non-filter end of the dowel into aa styrofoam cube, and you’re good to go! I made two of these topiaries for my dinner table, and I love them. The tie dye is so concentrated that the colors turn out super vibrant. Have fun creating and don’t forget to check out even more project ideas like a DIY Captain America t-shirt in iLoveToCreate’s new, free tie-dye eBook.

How-to: Tie Dye Topiary

How-to: Tie Dye Topiary

Filed Under: How-to Tagged With: coffee filters, diy, How-to, tie dye, topiary, tulip one-step tie-dye kit

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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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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