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Hands Occupied

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

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Welcome to the New Hands Occupied

February 6, 2017 Leave a Comment

Explore the new Hands Occupied and celebrate the updates with a knitting kit giveaway featuring Spud & Chloe yarn!

Welcome to the brand new Hands Occupied! Those of you who get the newsletter each week got an early sneak peek at the site over the weekend. (Miss out? You can sign up for future email updates here or in the red box to the right of this post.) For those of you seeing this for the first time, I hope you like the new digs! Taking a look around, you’ll probably notice a few things. Right up top there’s a brand new logo. I know a lot of people (myself included) were fond of the old logo, but after 5 years, it was time for a change that better reflects what Hands Occupied has become. My design team and I went for something a little more contemporary and minimal, but still colorful and fun.

In the coming weeks, you’ll see the new look in more places than just the website. Patterns will be updated and reformatted for the new look, and you’ll see it reflected across all of the social networks we hang out on. If you’ve bought patterns in the past on Ravelry, Craftsy or Kollabora (the only places I sell online), I’ll be sending free updated versions of each pattern as they’re available.

Explore the new Hands Occupied and celebrate the updates with a knitting kit giveaway featuring Spud & Chloe yarn!

Take a look around

In addition to the new logo, getting around HandsOccupied.com has changed a bit too. You can now find the blog feed at handsoccupied.com/blog. There will be snippets of the latest posts available in the From the Blog heading on the home page, which will link right to the full post, so finding the latest content is easy! The home page has a pretty beautiful makeover. The site works like a dream on tablets and phones as well as on computers. If you’re not sure where to look for your favorite post, tutorial or pattern, use the search box in the upper right corner of the site.

Explore the new Hands Occupied and celebrate the updates with a knitting kit giveaway featuring Spud & Chloe yarn!

What’s in store

The redesign marks a new phase in the strange and exiting journey that has been Hands Occupied. When I began this blog 6.5 years ago, there was no intention for it to be anything but a hobby, but now it’s my whole job. Hands Occupied and the related work I do enabled me to leave my library career four months ago to pursue a full time design career. (Here’s the back story if you missed it.) This update is reflective of how much more I’m able to invest in Hands Occupied as a business and a resource for contemporary knitters, crocheters and other yarn crafters.

What to expect from Hands Occupied moving forward:

  • Monthly giveaways featuring lots of beautiful yarn, patterns, notions and more.
  • By popular demand, the Read Along Knit Along is back next month! Full details will be announced soon, but mark your calendars and plan your queues accordingly. If you’re chomping at the bit for the next RALKAL, I have a hint for you – sock yarn, 100g. ;)
  • Every month for the first 6 months of 2017 you can expect a new, colorful pattern from me. January kicked off this trend with the Exquisite Mystery shawl collaboration, February brought you the Rhombuster, and March through June’s patterns are receiving final touches before they come at you too. I can’t wait to show you the new designs!
  • I have big plans for Instagram – more photos, higher quality photos, more videos, and it’s all starting quite serendipitously with the uber popular #yarnlovechallenge. You can peep the latest pics at the bottom of every page of the new site so you don’t miss out, even if Instagram is not your scene. If it is, don’t forget to friend me @handsoccupied or share your knits using #handsoccupied.
  • Finally, the Ravelry group will be seeing a lot more action. We’re going to have the RALKAL conversations there, and I want to do more show and tell of everyone’s current WIPs. If anyone wants to offer to step up and help moderate a thread, holler in the comments on this post, reach out on Ravelry, or email me at heidi-at-handsoccupied-dot-com.

Explore the new Hands Occupied and celebrate the updates with a knitting kit giveaway featuring Spud & Chloe yarn!

Let’s celebrate!

To celebrate the new look, I’ve got some goodies for you. The response to the newly-released Rhombuster pattern was so great, I figure a month long sale is in order! Use code SITELAUNCH on Ravelry through the end of the month for 40% off the new pattern. Since that’s not nearly enough to celebrate the upgrade, our lovely friends at Blue Sky Fibers have hooked us up with 3 skeins of Spud & Chloe yarn for a giveaway: 2 skeins of Stripey Fine and 1 of Fine. That just so happens to be the exact combination of yarn required to make the Rhombuster Scarf, so of course, you’ll get the pattern if you win the giveaway as well. All in all, that boils down to an entire kit to make the Rhombuster in my absolute favorite colors of Spud & Chloe yarn. All you have to do is enter using the box below.

Terms and conditions are available by clicking the Terms & Conditions link in the box. Giveaway is open to the United States and Canada only.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Explore the new Hands Occupied and celebrate the updates with a knitting kit giveaway featuring Spud & Chloe yarn!

Yarn was provided for the giveaway by Blue Sky Fibers. 

Filed Under: Crochet, Giveaways, Reviews & Sponsored, Inspiration, Knitting Tagged With: hands occupied, handsoccupied, heidi gustad, new look, ravelry, rebrand, redesign, site update, website redesign

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

Craft book author & pattern designer ❤️💛💙
knitting, crochet, latch hook & macramé
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Please email for pattern support. 🧶

Heidi Gustad 🧶✂️
When you have four big skeins of pretty 2 ply yarn When you have four big skeins of pretty 2 ply yarn, you immediately think sweater, right? 
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My wardrobe could use another handmade sweater - I’m thinking something simple, seamed and with a decent amount of ease for potentially wearing tucked in with jeans or skirts. 🤔 
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Yarn: @universal_yarn Fibra Natura Cobblestone in Antarctica and Dragon’s Breath, wound in thick skeins of 100% superwash wool that’s a light DK weight.
How to to knit throwing (a.k.a. English) style . How to to knit throwing (a.k.a. English) style 
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In knitting, there are a few common knitting styles. Most often you’re going to encounter continental style and English (throwing) style on your knitting journey. I recently had an old video teaching continental style get a lot of views. Based on the comments, it was clear the people wanted to also see a throwing tutorial, so here you go! 🧶
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Please note that there is a LOT of variation in knitting styles, and one isn’t necessarily better than another. Most often, I’ve found it comes down to two things: how you were taught and whether or not you’re really into colorwork knitting (which can involve a mix of styles). 
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Longer-term knitters who’ve made it this far: do you prefer one over the other? And why? 
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#handsoccupied #englishknitting #learntoknit #knitting #howtoknit #knittersofinstagram #knitting_inspiration
How to do a one-step provisional knitting cast on How to do a one-step provisional knitting cast on / a.k.a. crochet provisional cast on, scrap yarn cast on
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I read recently that tiktok and Instagram are being used as search engines more and more. 🤔 I thought since I’m going to all the work of making tutorials on YouTube, I should experiment with making a quick version of them for other platforms. There are obvious teaching limitations to vertical video, short-form content like this, but I think I covered the gist of this cast on in a minute. The YouTube version also covers how to unzip this cast on because there was time for it 👍🏻 L1nk is in my profile. 
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I’m very much looking for feedback as I continue to make instructional knitting & craft videos. Sometimes good tutorials are hard to find, and (ideally polite) feedback helps me improve. 
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#handsoccupied #provisionalcaston #knitting #knititngtutorial #knittersofinstagram #crochethook #knittingtutorial
For the first time in a long time, there’s a new For the first time in a long time, there’s a new tutorial from Hands Occupied! 🎉 The video is live on YouTube & the blog. 
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The post covers what provisional cast ons are & how they differ, and the video covers how to work a one-step provisional cast on using scrap yarn and a crochet hook. (This is a great one to save for future reference.)
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I learned several names for this method while researching this video & post. Crochet provisional cast on, one-step cast on, scrap yarn cast on - if you know even more names for this technique, please share! 
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#handsoccupied #provisionalcaston #knitting #scrapyarn #crochethook
Working on a sample for some upcoming videos. It’s an overcast day with intermittent sunshine & I have a scruffy little sidecar. 🐶 Can’t complain! 
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What’s on your needles this week? 
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Yarn: @debbieblissknits Cashmerino Aran 
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#handsoccupied #knitting #knittinglife
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