I had a blast doing stop-motion animation workshops at the ELA Public Library this month!

It was inspiring to see all different ideas and stories develop in an afternoon. We had tons of crafty materials on hand, and everything from pom-poms to play-doh to 3D printed figurines got moving through pictures.

I hope these creators keep making movies. (Anybody can do it with free apps like Stop Motion Studio!)

Thank you to Becca Boland for making this happen!

I just enjoyed a long weekend at Vogue Knitting LIVE Chicago! It’s been over two years since the last one here, and also over two years since Mochimochi Land was unfurled in public.

I was lucky enough to be placed near a ramp entrance to the marketplace, so I got this nice overhead shot thanks to that!

Many new mochis and scenarios joined the world, and this time I focused on referencing some of my animations within it. I hope people had fun checking it out—I think it was the most detailed version ever!

For most people, VK LIVE is about classes, lectures, and shopping for yarn. For me, it’s mostly about sharing Mochimochi Land and seeing knitters face-to-face for a change! On Sunday, these lovely faces found four-leaf clovers and let me take their picture.

Yes, there are only seven people, because three clovers went rogue! I hope they are bringing luck to whoever now has them.

With my limited extra time, I chatted with Nicky Epstein, picked up yarn from Handspun Hope, and got acquainted with the Committed Knitters, who knit with women in the Cook County Jail.

Thank you to the VK LIVE people and to everyone who came out and said hi!

Last month it was my pleasure to lead a stop-motion animation workshop at the Ann Arbor District Library. This was my first time trying such a workshop, and I was lucky enough to have a big group of enthusiastic would-be animators of all ages attend. (I could tell from the start that they would be jumping right in, because it was a beautiful July Saturday in this beautiful college town, and they had chosen to spend the afternoon in a basement with me!)

After a presentation of my various animation projects, along with some examples of approaches that were very different from mine, everyone broke up into teams to make their own animations. The library supplied iPod Touches loaded with the Stop Motion Studio app (yes, this is the coolest library, and it’s totally worth becoming a card holder even if you don’t live in the area), and they also had plenty of models and craft supplies for people to use. Many participants came with their own materials, from paper to Legos to knitted mochis!

As people finished up their short animations, we gathered around the devices to see the results, and I was impressed by just how different everyone’s projects were. The animations were both narrative and non-narrative, things shot overhead and against the wall, scenes with backgrounds and at least one that incorporated a self-portrait.

A couple of people have shared their results with me—here’s a short one starring knitted patriots that Sara made.

And here’s a cool origami animation shared by a participant named Kevin—he made this after the workshop, based on what he experimented with at the library.

Is it bad to say that this was way more fun than teaching a knitting class? Well, fortunately knitting and animating are not mutually exclusive activities. I do hope to have the opportunity to do this again soon at another venue.

Thank you to Erin at the Ann Arbor District Library and to everyone who came to the workshop!

People of Ann Arbor, come take a stop-motion animation workshop with me on July 1st at the Ann Arbor District Library!

The workshop is 2-5pm and is open to everyone from 6th graders to adults. I’m going to talk about a bit of my animation work, and then we’ll all try our hand at making fun animations together as teams. We’re going to use a free mobile app, so that means you can take your skills home with you and continue making more animations on your own if you like.

Get the details at addl.org.

Hope to see you there!