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Hands Occupied

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

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New in the Shop: Exclusive Enamel Pins!

September 25, 2020 2 Comments

A custom collab between Taaja Tucker and Hands Occupied, inspired by the knitting community.

As promised earlier this week, I’ve been busy updating a bunch of things behind the scenes, including the Hands Occupied Shop. Most importantly is my first foray into merch! I worked with an illustrator friend to develop two adorable enamel pin designs inspired by the knitting community. Both of these are perfect for gifting to your knit night bestie or treating yourself!

Find the pins in the Shop: Rip it! Enamel Pin / Fiber Friends Enamel Pin

A custom collab between Taaja Tucker and Hands Occupied, inspired by the knitting community.

About the pins

Fiber Friends

This adorable pin measures approximately 1.25 inches by 1.25 inches. The original design by Taaja Tucker features five of the most-loved fiber producing animals (sheep, rabbit, goat, alpaca, & yak) hanging out together behind a red banner reading “fiber friends.”

A custom collab between Taaja Tucker and Hands Occupied, inspired by the knitting community.
Find Fiber Friends pins in the Shop

Rip It!

Also clocking in at 1.25 inches by 1.25 inches, this funny pin again features original artwork by Taaja Tucker. This pin depicts a frog smiling and tearing out its red knitting. The words “rip it!” are in the foreground because in the knit and crochet community, frogging is the term we use for tearing back out work to fix a mistake, often very far back. Frogs ribbit, so… RIP IT! 

A custom collab between Taaja Tucker and Hands Occupied, inspired by the knitting community.
Nab a Rip it! pin in the Shop

Working with Taaja Tucker

Taaja Tucker is the name of the biologist and artist I collaborated with on these first 2 enamel pin designs. Personally, I’m a crafter and a fiber artist – not an illustrator. Enter Taaja, who I’ve known since college & who also designed my old band’s merchandise (pictured below!). 15 years after college, we collaborated again on merch for an indie project. I feel like working with a friend is the kind of good vibes I needed for adding physical objects to the Hands Occupied Shop, you know?

Taaja’s website / @tinywaterbear on Instagram

View this post on Instagram

This is what happens when you combine listening to the new episode of @seriouscrafts and trying to take a mirror selfie to show off the day’s handmade wardrobe element. (The new episode is seriously pretty funny!) . The shirt was for my college band, Falcorps (as in Falcor Luckdragon, yes). I screen printed our sweet merch using thrift store t-shirts and @speedball_art supplies in my dorm laundry room. 😆 Shout out to @tinywaterbear’s epic shirt design, & former bandmates @shuttershop @haunted_neighborhoods @mike_lala @mccuneza, etc. 🥰

A post shared by Heidi Gustad 🧶✂️ (@handsoccupied) on Jul 30, 2019 at 9:39pm PDT

Fun fact: these have literally been years in the making!

These pins were actually designed in early 2018. I wasn’t sure pins would be the right move for Hands Occupied at the time, but Taaja had already finished the Fiber Friends & Rip It designs. Luckily I was in love with the designs, so I kept them in my back pocket just in case! When WizardPins reached out about working together on a pins project, I was ready to go! Getting the project rolling was so simple. Shout out to WizardPins for making my enamel pin dreams come true!

A custom collab between Taaja Tucker and Hands Occupied, inspired by the knitting community.

Congratulations! If you’ve read this far, I appreciate it! Use code FREESHIP in the Shop to get, you guessed it, free shipping on orders through 10/1/20.

Filed Under: Pattern Shop Tagged With: enamel pins, fiber friends, rip it, taaja tucker

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!

Previous Post: « Happy 10th Birthday, Hands Occupied!
Next Post: The New Hands Occupied YouTube Channel is Live! »

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Comments

  1. Bonnie

    September 25, 2020 at 11:01 am

    Hey there! Love the pin designs. Maybe I missed it, but I didn’t see a link to the actual product page in this post. (I ended up finding it via your shop link and ordered a frog pin, but wanted to mention it since I was confused for a bit.)

    Reply
    • Heidi

      September 25, 2020 at 12:32 pm

      Thanks, Bonnie! I just added prominent link to them near the top of the post – can you tell I’m used to marketing just patterns? ;) Appreciate the feedback, it really helps me out! -Heidi

      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

Yarn craft designer & author. Into intarsia knits, latch hook, color & vintage-modern style.
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👇🏻 Book, Patterns, Tutorials

Heidi Gustad 🧶✂️
Sneaking in a few stitches in the shade. 😎 Sneaking in a few stitches in the shade. 😎
Another morning of filming! One of the knitting vi Another morning of filming! One of the knitting videos I’d like to release soon is a big overview of how to swatch and why - if you have any questions or favorite tips, let me know. 
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To be honest, I want to be able to link to this video as a resource when I get angry gauge questions, so please don’t hesitate to share your best tips. Together, we can tame the knitting Karens. 😆
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#stopswatchandblockit #handsoccupied #knitting #knittersofinstagram
A big issue I've had in the last year is putting t A big issue I've had in the last year is putting together new design work but not doing any independent releases of them. Chalk it up to anxiety, burn out, or whatever but here we are. 
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Last week I turned 35, so in honor of that here’s 3 things: 
❤️ a picture of me at my most stylish 
💛 a little glimpse at some of the design things I've recently been working on
💙a promise that I will be releasing some of the pictured designs this year. Getting back in the swing of things after taking it easy is hard 😆 - wish me luck!
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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#handsoccupied #crochet #studiodog #crochettutorial
This yoke deserved a mid-blocking closeup, don’t This yoke deserved a mid-blocking closeup, don’t you think? ❤️💛💙
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Pattern: modified #soldotnacrop sweater / yarn: various from my stash
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