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

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A closer look at the RALCAL Prizes!

April 23, 2018 Leave a Comment

A closer look at the Read Along Crochet Along prize pack on Hands Occupied, featuring a Darn Good Yarn yarn bowl, bag handles from Jul Designs, a Love & Leche lotion bar, and yarn from Why Knot Fibers.
The prize pack for this year’s Read Along Crochet Along is our best yet! In fact, it’s so good that it deserves its own closer look blog post, so here we go! This set of prizes has a lot of goodies that would make any crocheter’s the day. :)

Why Knot Fibers’ Spunky Yarn Up Close

Why Knot Fibers' Spunky yarn is a sport weight, 100% superwash merino wool yarn with lots of spring. 
I haven’t yet had the chance to talk to you folks about the yarn that helped inspire the Worker Bee Bag design! Why Knot Fibers’ Spunky yarn is a sport weight, 100% superwash merino wool yarn with lots of spring. Why Knot hand dyes their yarns, and their semisolid colors are to-die-for pretty. As you can see in the photos of the swatches in particular (and if you’ve looked at the photos of the Worker Bee Bag), the variation in color intensity results in really visually interesting finished objects.

Why Knot Fibers' Spunky yarn is a sport weight, 100% superwash merino wool yarn with lots of spring. 
Colorways pictured: Magic for Margiold (yellow) & Smoke and Shadows (grey)
Skein details:
 100g / 3.5 oz. skeins / 271 yds / 100% superwash merino wool / sport weight
Knitting needles: US 5, 3.75 mm / 18 stitches & 24 rows over 4 inches
Crochet hook: US G-6, 4 mm / 19 sc & 24 rows over 4 inches
Cons: If you need to tear out a ton, Spunky can get a little splitty, so if you’re trying a new technique and anticipate a lot of tearing back, you might want to practice with some yarn ends first.
Pros: The color and the spring, friends! They’re really fun to work with – the spring makes it a tactile joy for sure. And the beauty of Why Knot’s semisolids can’t really be overstated. :)
Pattern ideas: For crochet, the Worker Bee Bag, of course! And for knitting, this would make a beautiful Outlander Chevron Shawl.

Why Knot Fibers' Spunky yarn is a sport weight, 100% superwash merino wool yarn with lots of spring. 

Our other prizes

Last week, we took a closer look at the wonderful lotion bar from Love & Leche (and over the weekend, two different varieties were added to the Shop!), so I’ll direct you to that post for just about everything you need to know about that prize. :)

Our Read Along Crochet Along prize pack for this go around also includes the very same yarn bowl I use in my everyday knitting – a handmade wooden yarn bowl from Darn Good Yarn. Yarn bowls are great because you simply run your working yarn through a coil-like shape and rest your yarn ball in the bowl itself. Then your yarn is in an easily accessible position to knit or crochet without you having to worry about it rolling away. One yarn bowl is included in the Read Along prize pack, but if you just can’t wait to hear who wins (or if you’re not a RALCALer), you can get one of Darn Good Yarn’s handmade wooden yarn bowls for 50% off using the code YB50. :)

In addition to the lotion bar, yarn bowl, and the yarn, there’s also a pair of handles from Jul Designs in the prize pack too! These are the very handles that helped inspire my Lopi Tote knitting design and, of course, the Worker Bee Bag crochet design. So if you’ve RALCALed along with us, you can finish your project with the same handles you’ve seen in the pictures. They are high quality and made with beautiful, durable leather. They attach to your work with screws so you can easily secure them to a finished knit or crochet project, and remove them to wash your handmade bag.

A closer look at the Read Along Crochet Along prize pack on Hands Occupied, featuring a Darn Good Yarn yarn bowl, bag handles from Jul Designs, a Love & Leche lotion bar, and yarn from Why Knot Fibers.

RALCALing? Don’t forget to enter the giveaway!

Let’s review. Our amazing prizes include: a skein of Why Knot Fibers’ Spunky yarn in Smoke and Shadows, a Sweet Sheep Lotion Bar from Love & Leche, a set of Jul Designs’ bag handles, & a handmade wooden yarn bowl from Darn Good Yarn.

You can enter the giveaway here or below. You must be participating in the RALCAL to win. Open to US, Canada, UK, Australia, Denmark & Germany. Entries close at 11:59 pm CST on April 30. Winner announced in the following Picks of the Week post. If you’re on mobile, you’ll have to click a button or visit this page to enter.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Prizes provided by Why Knot Fibers, Darn Good Yarn, Jul Designs, and Love & Leche. Post contains affiliate links. 

PS: As an added extra special treat bonus, one of our Read Along Crochet Along sponsors, Love & Leche, gave us a bonus lotion bar to give away! Enter in last week’s review post.

Filed Under: Giveaways, Reviews & Sponsored, Knit Along Tagged With: cal, crochet along, ralcal, read along crochet along, worker bee bag

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

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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