If you’re going to be anywhere near NYC this weekend, I hope you’ll get yourself to the Marriott Marquis in Times Square for Vogue Knitting LIVE.

Here’s the rundown of Mochimochi Land goings-on:

• You can join me in a group knitting project—we’ll be making as many FellowSheep as we can all weekend, sponsored by Lion Brand!

• Check out a small display of classic Mochimochi characters and animations!

• I’ll be in the art gallery area of the marketplace all weekend signing books and selling kits at a special price, including exciting NEW kits that you can’t find anywhere else yet!

• On Sunday there will be a tiny ninja hunt in the Marketplace! Each person who finds a knitted ninja will win either a copy of Adventures in Mochimochi Land or a tiny ninja kit.

• My mom’s gonna be there too!

This past weekend was Vogue Knitting LIVE Chicago—my third time to be there! It was a busy weekend of Mochimochi Land assembling, seeing familiar faces in the marketplace, a little lecturing on knitting toys, and handing out prizes to tiny hot dog hunters.

It takes a lot of prep to get ready for one of these events, but Soupy was on it last week, in a literal sort of way.

This was my first time showing the classic tabletop Mochimochi Land at VK LIVE in Chicago, and it had some exciting additions, including donuts attacking bakers from my new book, Adventures in Mochimochi Land.

Also new were tiny me, John, and our cats thanks to Joan, one of our favorite mochi makers. You could find the family just beyond the unicorn eaters.

Speaking of family, here’s my mom! She joined me all weekend and was a great help. We even got her some Malabrigo yarn so she could knit a cowl as she manned the booth with me.

Mom also helped me hang a new little garland at our table—I think it was a brilliant addition!

Here are our nine successful hot dog hunters—as usual (for some reason) one of the tiny hotdogs went rogue and wasn’t heard from again!

These frankfurter finders each won a copy of Adventures in Mochimochi Land or a tiny kit of their choosing.

And finally, Joyce won the weekend as the most savvy mochi knitter, having brought a written list of all the Mochimochi Land patterns that she’s already acquired and didn’t need to get duplicates of.

Thanks to the Vogue Knitting LIVE team for a great weekend, and thanks to everyone who came out! With the baby coming in December, this will be my last VK LIVE for a little while, but I’m sure you can’t keep me away for too long.

I get to go to NYC next week! I’m always excited to visit the last place I called home, and this time the occasion is also exciting—a talk and book signing at the Lion Brand Yarn Studio!

If you’re in the NYC area, please join me next Thursday, September 17th, at 6pm, when I’ll discuss the adventure that was the making of Adventures in Mochimochi Land with a slideshow talk. The studio always does other little giveaways in conjunction with their talks, so it’ll be a fun evening. RSVP here!

Maybe I’ll also bring a few gnomes with me to leave in the city while I’m there for a couple of days. If you see a gnome roaming around the city, please give him or her a nice home!

Learn tiny toy knitting techniques and knit a tiny dolphin in my upcoming class at String Theory in Glen Ellyn, IL!

This is a project class in which everyone will finish (or nearly finish) a tiny dolphin from Adventures in Mochimochi Land to take home. We’ll cover techniques as we go, from joining two pieces into a round to wrap & turn to picking up stitches and simple embroidery. Experience with double-pointed needles is required.

Visit the String Theory website for more information and to sign up!

I’ll also be doing a book signing before the class at The Bookstore in Glen Ellyn on September 26th. Follow me on Facebook or Twitter to get updates about that.