Good news! I’m in the middle of working on new designs for a future book! Not Huge & Huggable Mochimochi, which is coming out October 15th, but something even newer than that. It’s very exciting! The bad news is that while I’m putting most of my creative energy into this project, I can’t really share any of it here, or else I’d have to kill you all.

Instead, I thought it would be fun to share a different knitting project that’s just in its infancy, especially because it’s a challenging design that may take some time. It’s an arcade game!

(You can see that I’ve also had doughnuts on the mind.)

I’m so excited for this project—you’ve got the screen, all the surfaces of the cabinet, plus the joysticks and the coin slots. So much fun detail! And if I’m making an arcade game, it might as well be something specific, so I’m also brainstorming about what kind of game it could be. John suggested Super Mochi Sisters, which might be too awesome not to go with.

Right now I’m still in the sketching stage. but once I’m feeling a little more solid on the direction of this guy, I’ll get started with the knitting. I’ll probably begin with the screen, then I’ll build out the rest of the design based on that, and I’ll try to document my progress here as it comes along. So check back for updates!

Happy Father’s Day!

I just put a new tutorial up on the How-to page: How to join I-cord legs together. It’s an essential technique for knitting tiny gnomes, pirates, chefs—all manner of little creatures that walk around on two legs.

So many of you chimed in on my informal cozy poll last week that I just have to share some highlights. These guys can’t wait to hear the results!

As of this writing, we received more than 40 comments with opinions one way or the other on cozies. The pros really won the day—almost twice as many of you support the ideals of a cozy culture than those who are happy with your basic mugs with handles. Maybe this shouldn’t have come as a surprise, seeing as how most of my readers are probably knitters who like the idea of making the world a better place by putting little sweaters on everything.

Here are some of my favorite quotes from the comments.

From Katie:

We *all* already use a cozy, the drink sleeve that ends as garbage. A reusable cozy is great for the environment and quietly states: “I’m a yarn lover!”

From Emily:

My daughter takes a hard boiled egg in her lunch every day so I knitted her a little cozy that looks like a bunny. It’s outrageously adorable. I also made some smaller ones to fit on Cadbury eggs. (The pattern is Huggie Bunnies on ravelry.)

From Lorysa:

When one of my fingerless gloves developed a hole, I turned it into a cosy for my travel coffee mug (which doesn’t have a handle. I’m not anti-handle, but this one had a better lid). I use it every single day and plan to knit more, thicker ones.

From Mariette:

Here’s my BIG problem with cozies: they never fit the container that I want to use it on. Seriously.

From Eva:

Cosies are like clunky but warm winter boots. As a teenager, you don’t want to wear them because they look uncool, but as you get older, you realize that what’s uncool is freezing while underdressed because you’re trying to look cool.

From Manisha:

I admit I went through a knitting up cozy phase and handed them out many people I know….. It was fun to have a quick knit but now they are mostly used to dress my daughter’s dolls.

From fillyjonk:

Couldn’t a sweater be regarded as a “human cozy”?

From Yvonne:

I’ve made a couple of “cozies” (more like sleeves — think of what they give you at Starbucks) for my coffee. I have given those away, though, because people (at Starbucks) find them to be really cool, and knowing I can make another one, I just whip off the sleeve and give it to them. I use Cascade Fixation for these.

From LauraSue:

I’ve never knit a cozy and I thought they were kind of…well, useless. But golly, you cozy-lovers are starting to win me over! And if I ever knit a cozy, it would have to be a mochi-mochi cozy. Fer sher.

I appreciate that sentiment, LauraSue, and I second it!

OK, just one more—from Amanda:

My husband bought an ugly Christmas sweater beer cozy from Target over the holidays. He was shopping alone….

And there you have it: cozies win the day. I can’t promise that I’ll start outfitting my drinks anytime soon, but I can’t help getting a little excited for cozies after all your testimonials.

So, what should strange corner of the knitting world should we debate next?