Let's make happy
Sarah’s Chicken Yarn Shop
May 17th
The only thing better than a friendly local yarn store is a local yarn store run by friendly chickens!
This is Sarah’s adorable entry in our recent Fine Feathered Photo Contest. It was heartbreaking not to include it in the top three, but all that cuteness and attention to detail gets a big honorable mention from us! (And the gnome button portrait is just genius.)
Don’t forget to keep adding your photos of Mochimochi knits to our Flickr group—they’ll appear in the gallery page of this website, and they’ll automatically be eligible for our big photo contest in the fall.
Sock Machine Dreams
May 14th
I spent Saturday with my mother-in-law Bonney (who’s now on Twitter, you guys) at the New Hampshire Sheep & Wool Festival. It was so nice to go to a fiber event just for fun!
We saw cotton-candy roving wool…
And the world’s saddest photo contest…
(Actually the photos were really good—it was just the display that broke my heart.)
And we saw a sock knitting machine at work! Of course the most interesting thing was the thing that I forgot to take a picture of, but it looked like this:
It’s made by the Erlbacher Gearhart Knitting Machine Company, which is based in Missouri. Jim from Good Karma Farm showed us how it works, and we were mesmerized. I actually saw more than one of these at the festival, so it must be a popular choice among serious sock makers.
There was a brief moment when I fantasized about using such a machine to crank out hundreds of mochis for my next installation. But that dream died when I reminded myself about all the shaping that I do, and the tiny scale that I prefer, not to mention the price of the machine. But if I ever need to make a boatload of giant snakes, I know just what to get!
If you haven’t seen one before, here’s a demo video of a vintage machine at work.
Are you sock knitters tempted?
Wai Sek Moi’s Tiny Rockstar Chicken
May 10th
It’s been a crazy kit-making week in Mochimochi Land! (It would be way crazier without my dad’s yarn-winding contraption.) Thanks so much to everyone who has placed an order. Your mysteries are on their way…
Today I’d like to share one of our absolute favorite entries from the Fine Feathered Photo Contest that didn’t make it into the top three: The Adventures of Chick and Hen by Wai Sek Moi.
Chick chillin’ out
Chick ‘n Hen going to work
Makeup [note the framed photos on the wall!]
Rockin’ It!
On the road
Curtain call—The End
John and I just love the incredible detail this knitter has used, employing all sorts of materials to complete the scenes. And a tiny rockstar chicken is a pretty awesome character. Great inspiration for the weekend!
New Mystery Kits Free with Purchase through May 27
May 6th
Big news today about tiny kits!
First, it’s time for another free mystery kit special! Now through May 27th, everyone who purchases two kits and/or books from the Mochimochi Shop will get one of these mystery kits for free.
These are all-new designs with patterns that aren’t in any pattern collections or books yet. All I can reveal is that they’re all animals… and they’re all adorable!
Order two kits and/or books from the Mochimochi Shop, and a randomly-selected mystery kit will automatically be sent with your order. (You don’t have to add it to your shopping cart.) Order four kits/books, and two different mystery kits are yours. Order six kits/books, and all will be revealed to you.
Once the mystery kit special is over, these kits won’t be available in the shop again until later this year. So don’t miss out, especially if you love a good mystery…
Plus! By popular demand, the much-anticipated tiny gnome kit is finally here!
This kit comes with a pattern and enough Cascade Heritage yarn and stuffing to knit up three tiny gnomes. (That’s the minimum number required for a gnome kick line.)
If you know a knitting gnome lover who lacks the right colors, this is just the thing! (It’s also great for travel knitting.)
It’s now available for $12 in the Mochimochi Shop! (And yes, we ship internationally.)
Fine Feathered Photo Contest Winners!
May 3rd
It’s time to announce the winners of our Fine Feathered Photo Contest!
We asked you to create a scene with a photo or a series of photos featuring Tiny Chickens, Tiny Hatchlings, or Tiny Perching Pigeons. And boy did you come through! We were delighted by the creativity and hard work that obviously went into the more than 100 entries that we received. It’s the toughest thing in the world for John and me to select only three winners from all of the cuteness, but this beautiful Spud & Chloë yarn isn’t just going to give itself away…
See the winning entries after the jump!
Inspiration: François Chambard’s Anthropomorphic Lamps
Apr 30th
I’ve mentioned the character art promoters Pictoplasma often here recently because of my involvement with their conferences in New York and Berlin this year. More than that, Pictoplasma is a rich source of inspiration to me because of the seemingly endless stream of highly talented and imaginative artists they bring to my attention, like furniture designer François Chambard. I don’t spend as much time drooling over nicely designed products as some people do, but I am completely smitten by François’s collection of vaguely anthropomorphic lamps and other objects.
Photos by Francis Dzikowksi/ Esto
The simplicity of the designs and the way that their basic variations give the objects wildly different personalities is exciting to me. Some of them have more distinct “eyes” and other human-like features, but I see distinct personalities in them all.
François builds 75% of his projects out of his Brooklyn studio, so I also love the fact that these are getting made close to myhome. I hope to pay him a visit sometime and see if I find any new creatures.
I would love to have one these guys move in with me! (One of the above designs, the Atum Lamp, is available for purchase.)
Even though I’m planning to stick with yarn and needles for the time being, it’s inspiring to see what François is doing with industrial materials and in the context of furniture design. Characters are everywhere!
Thank you for the Feathers!
Apr 30th
The Fine Feathered Photo Contest is now closed for entries. Looks like you guys entered more than 100 photos of mochimochi birds—awesome!
We’ll be carefully considering them all in the next few days, and we’ll announce the top three winners very soon. Good luck to you all!
If you missed the deadline, don’t worry! Keep adding your photos of toys made from Mochimochi patterns to our Flickr group—all of them will be eligible for our big annual photo contest this fall.
