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Hands Occupied

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

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Mother’s Day

May 12, 2013 1 Comment

My Mom and I baking as a baby. | HandsOccupied.com

Let me give you a minute to get over my complete baby blondeness and how much my adult self looks like my mom…

While there’s still a few more days left to let me know how you think Hands Occupied is doing in my first-ever reader survey, it’s already abundantly clear that 99% of y’all want to know more about me as a person. Mother’s Day sounds like a good place to begin opening the door to opening up.

So, the pictures above were taken when my mom was about 5 years older than I am now, and I was about 18 months (I’m guessing because of the pumpkin cookie cutter and my wee size this was October 1988). My love of baking and crafting started at an extremely early age, thanks largely to my mom*. She made sure I knew the important things in life, like how to make from-scratch sugar cookies because store bought cookies are garbage, how to grow a garden, and about a million other things. Family was a priority in my house growing up. I don’t remember many nights we didn’t eat a home-cooked meal, often with canned or fresh vegetables from her garden.

My 26th birthday is in a few weeks, and I’ve been married for two years. I realized a couple months ago that I have only just begun to feel like a true adult. Without effort I find myself worrying about growing my business and career, saving for retirement, making the most of my time. With that growing adult perspective, I realized that my mom’s level of support for my little brother and I growing up wasn’t just something that came automatically and easily (even though that’s how we totally perceived it as kids). Not too long ago I learned that when my little brother was born, she’d wanted to reduce her job to part time status, but wasn’t able to, and that’s why she was home with us full time while my brother was really little. Then, when she got back into the work force, she got a job that let her work full time six months out of the year with summers off. Whether or not the stay-at-home status was what she & my dad wanted financially at first, it meant so much to have her at home. We were off school and Mom was home to teach us all sorts of wonderful things to keep our hands occupied (HA!!). We also got to participate in a lot of activities like summer reading at the library, park district sports, and swimming lessons. It was awesome.

I’m really proud of my mom. As friends of mine have had kids, I can see how hard it is so balance pregnancy, kids and a career – not to mention a social life. So often, as has been discussed a lot in the media lately (thanks in no small part to Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer and Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg), having children limits women’s careers for a myriad of reasons. Some of these reasons are external, and some are self-imposed. Maybe my mom met with some limitations when she tried to balance her professional and parental workloads, which included a spazzy 3-year-old me and a newborn son. But now, my mom has a very impressive job at which she’s the boss. AND she still got to spend tons of time with lil bro and I growing up. AND she’s been married 27 years. AND she and my dad have an excellent relationship. My mom really got to have it all and still has it in spades which is darn impressive. I can only hope that I will be so lucky in my life. Happy Mother’s Day, Mom.

*Stay tuned, my dad’s pretty awesome too. I’ve got a Father’s Day post incubating in my brain as we speak.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: career, mother's day, parenting, personal, role model, women

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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  1. Mom

    May 12, 2013 at 8:51 am

    Thanks Heidi! What a wonderful way to start Mother’s Day. Love you

    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

Helping yarn crafters untangle various techniques on the internet since 2010
🧶 Really into intarsia
Stay up-to-date 💌 & shop the latest patterns ⤵️

Heidi Gustad 🧶 knitting & yarn crafts
How to convert a closet into WIPs storage with jus How to convert a closet into WIPs storage with just a few supplies ✂️
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When I was a librarian, we would use these hanging bags to circulate books with audiobook CDs. They came to mind when I wanted to develop a filing cabinet-like system for my differently-sized WIPs. To fit in my studio closet, a standard bedroom closet, they just needed custom hangers. 🤙🏻 
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HOW TO MAKE THE HANGERS
1. Carefully cut approx. a 9” (23 cm) length of flexible 3 mm aluminum wire.
2. Near the end of a large knitting needle or dowel, wrap the wire around it as you would a twist tie. 
3. Bend the other end into a hook shape, perpendicular to the circle shape you just created. 
4. Hang like a hanger in a closet, as shown. 
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#handsoccupied #handmadelife #knitting_inspiration #craftcloset #craftroom #craftroomorganization #craftroomstorage #craftroomdecor #crocheter #latchhook #knittersofinstagram #wip #wips #hangingstorage
It’s time for the monthly review and giveaway! T It’s time for the monthly review and giveaway! This go around, get to know two new sister yarns from @manosyarnsusa, Marla and Sami, and enter to win a skein of each to try for yourself. 
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What makes these yarns sisters is that, while dyed differently, they’re the same weight and come in intentionally coordinating color palettes. For my review, I opted for a sky-inspired combo of Sami in Natural and Marla in Nube. 🌧️ 
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Check out the full review & enter the giveaway at the link in my bio. 
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#handsoccupied #yarnreview #manosdeluruguay #knitting_inspire #crochet #yarngiveaway #knitters #yarn #crochetersofinstagram
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
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