Knitting Mochimochi Preview: Naughty and Nicey

Somehow suddenly the release of Knitting Mochimochi is TOMORROW—I can hardly believe it! Time for one last preview!

Naughty and Nicey are part of the “Impractical Wearables” section of patterns in the book. I wanted to include some patterns that had a new twist, and wearable toys seemed like just the thing. As the “impractical” indicates, these aren’t your usual animal-shaped scarves and hats, but something much sillier, like an angel and devil that you can strap onto your shoulders. Perfect for a costume party!

This was a particularly challenging project to shoot, both because Brandi and I would have to incorporate a model in the image, and also because we really wanted to convey “temptation” in the photo. We thought about shooting a model from the back, with her front facing a big wall of tempting yarn. That concept didn’t work visually, though, so we looked into bakeries in the Tulsa area for a shoot with a counter full of cakes.

In the end, our primary concern was showing the angel and devil as clearly as possible, so Brandi shot it without a background. The end result was a clean, simple shot, but getting it wasn’t so simple! Once we found Ching, our model with the right kind of narrow shoulders (so that Naughty and Nicey weren’t spread too far apart in the image), we had to find just the right shirt for her to wear (we actually ended up turning a the top around backwards because the neckline looked better that way), and just the right cupcake for her to be tempted by (from Sweet Cakes in Tulsa). We actually had a selection of cupcakes, and we had to switch them out during the shoot—it was taking so long to get the lighting and angle just right that the icing on them was melting in Ching’s hands!

Ching was a trooper throughout the shoot, doing her best to express a dilemma without being over-dramatic. We weren’t sure if her whole face would end up in the cropped photo in the book, but it did, and I think it turned out great.

The pattern for Naughty and Nicey comes with instructions for three sizes of straps, but it’s easy to make them to fit any size. And of course, Naughty and Nicey don’t have to be worn—they can also watch over you from somewhere else (a kitchen shelf, perhaps)!

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