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Hands Occupied

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

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My Family’s Crafts: Antique Amigurumi!

August 31, 2011 Leave a Comment

Welcome to the second installment of My Family’s Crafts. For those of you who missed last week, here’s what this series is all about:

I come from a family that includes woodworkers, wine-makers, knitters, crocheters, quilters, embroiderers, cooks, farmers, gardeners, bakers and I’m sure more. None of them crafted for a living. They always used these talents as a creative outlet, a way to pass the time, or most importantly, a way to save money.

Today, I wanted to share one of my maternal great-grandmother’s amazing crafts. This is probably the most interesting craft I’ve inherited from a family member over the years. It appears to be some kind of poodle. The great thing about this craft is that it’s totally amigurumi, but it was made several decades ago. I bet if I told my great-grandma she was hip with her amigurumi, she’d look at me like a crazy person.

One of my great-grandma’s trademarks was practicality in her crafting. This piece is no exception. The amigurumi poodle is a cute cozy for baby powder or household cleaner. The added bonus of winding up with this little dude is that I was able to snap some pictures of the vintage bottle inside.

A little background on my great-grandma: She was born in the year 1900 and lived until 2002. In her life, she saw the advent of everything from commercial radio to the internet. My great-grandma crafted until a couple of years before her death. She was known for volunteering at an “old folks home” well in to her 80’s… until they told her to relax and enjoy her amazingly good health! After she stopped volunteering, she spent a lot of time knitting (I have a colorwork piece up my sleeve for this series!) and hand-making rosaries. My great-grandma Louise was an inspiring person and her crafts have become some of my favorite possessions.

Filed Under: Vintage Crafts Tagged With: amigurumi, antiques, crochet, my family's crafts

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

Yarn craft designer & author. Into intarsia knits, latch hook, color & vintage-modern style.
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Like a riding a bike! June guarded the neighborhoo Like a riding a bike! June guarded the neighborhood while I shot a new crochet tutorial today. With any luck, editing will go smoothly & I’ll be posting new videos to YouTube regularly soon! Got any requests for tutorial topics? 
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Pattern: modified #soldotnacrop sweater / yarn: various from my stash
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Speaking of which, dang it’s good to have my mental health back consistently after the past couple of years. The anxious parts of my personality are just chilling, rather than constantly screaming that my work isn’t good enough to share. The confident parts of me that matter have me creating (and starting to share my creations & process with strangers and friends) again! 
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