Monthly Archive for September, 2007

Woodins Pattern in Knitty!

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I am so excited to announce that I now have a pattern published in the Fall 07 issue of Knitty! It’s for the mysterious forest creatures known as Woodins, who live in fallen trees in the thickets of Central Park. It features a knitted hollow log with spooky eyes for the Woodins to hide in. I hope you enjoy the pattern!

For those of you who came to my site through Knitty, welcome to Mochimochi Land! I hope to get to know many of you.

If you have any questions about the Woodins pattern, don’t hesitate to contact me at info [at] mochimochiland [dot] com.

One thing I wanted to mention right away—I recently checked the Elann.com website for the yarn used in the pattern, and I was disappointed to see that as of this posting they are out of stock of some of the colors I call for. Because sizing isn’t such an issue for this pattern, you should be able to use many different yarns, particularly felt-able yarns that are DK or light worsted weight. If anyone has a specific recommendation for a substitute for Elann.com Peruvian Highland Wool, I would appreciate it if you left it in the comments to this post.

A big thank you to Amy for encouraging me to submit a pattern to her fabulous Knitty. And big thank yous to my mother-in-law Bonney for testing and my good friend Makiko for taking the gorgeous photo above. And one more thank you to Amy for sneaking the Woodins into the banner of the issue (take a good look at the right side)!

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Published
by
Anna
on September 13, 2007
in Free Patterns and Mochimochi Land News
. 43 Comments

Songs I’m Considering

Metacritic is a bit too meta, and the Pitchfork reviewers are a bit too caught up in their own cleverness. So for music recommendations, I am lately all about All Songs Considered, the unfortunately titled weekly music show on NPR.

ASC is just indie-nerdy enough and just mainstream enough to avoid being annoying most of the time. Host Bob Boilen is obviously aware that most of his listeners are a little older, a little whiter, a little less hip than the general population, but he’s not afraid to push his demographic with some music that is new and exciting.

Thus, I must give ASC much credit for my most recent music binge. The following are my first and generally superficial impressions of what came for me in the mail today:

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Sound of Silver - LCD Soundsystem

This is my first album by LCD Soundsystem. No objections here—it’s New Wave-funky and chill at once. If I owned a boutique of some kind, I would play this album over the speakers on Thursdays.

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Kala - M.I.A.

The international vibe of the album is pretty inspiring, but the huge ad for ringtones and cell phone wallpapers that fell out when I opened the jewel case wasn’t particularly inspiring. Maybe it’s just way postmodern like that.

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Famous Blue Raincoat - Jennifer Warnes / Leonard Cohen

The 20th Anniversary edition of this album was recently released, so I figured it was time for me to purchase the original recording, which is slightly more expensive from Amazon, for some reason.

Being Leonard Cohen songs, they are great, of course, but you have to be entirely not squeamish about the mid-’80s sound (i.e. echoey drums and synth) to really enjoy it.

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Strawberry Jam - Animal Collective

Lovely. It’s so happy and listenable, I don’t know if it can really qualify as experimental. The first track, “Peacebone,” is my new favorite song.

And the album packaging is a not-to-be-missed experience of ultra-glossiness.

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D-D-Don’t Don’t Stop the Beat - Junior Senior

Again I find myself late to the early ’90s retro party. But getting this infectious CD is good enough reason to hold your own party.

Published
by
Anna
on September 12, 2007
in Listened Things
. 6 Comments

Knitted Bonnet

In other non-toy-related craft news, I noticed that Amy Karol is causing a stir with her sewn bonnet pattern. If bonnets are the new big thing, now seems like the time to share the knitted bonnet I made about a year ago.

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This was the very very first thing that I ever designed, when I suddenly got the urge to make a snugly-fitting bonnet. It was so warm and lightweight that I ended up wearing it all winter long.

The close fit makes my hair flare out a little from underneath, but the back is also high enough to accommodate a low bun or ponytail below.

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Completing a project that I designed myself and wearing it for months was the best feeling! And I honestly didn’t know the first thing about designing when I started; it was just a matter of measuring and guessing and hoping and redoing. I encourage anyone to give it a try if you have an idea and an ounce of spare time.

Published
by
Anna
on September 10, 2007
in Knitted Things
. 12 Comments

Almost a Quilt

Fall is the season for trying something new. For me, new beginnings this fall will be finally mastering crochet (or at least amigurumi), finally getting a New York driver’s license (just a matter of paperwork and waiting in line, but a challenge to get up the energy to do it, nontheless), and finally learning how to use my sewing machine.

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My lovely mother-in-law and giver of said sewing machine came down for a visit this weekend, armed with little squares of fabric (which she had purchased in a cute little kit on Etsy) and an entire roll of batting. It was time to face the machine, unlike that last time, when it was only time to think about facing the machine.

“C’mon, kids in China use these things all day long,” she assured me. Well, I can show those precocious child-laborers what’s what, I thought, and so I hunkered down and churned out this little number in two days:

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This was before ironing the front flat and adding the back, but I was rather pleased by my progress by this afternoon, when the light was good for picture taking. (Not all the squares perfectly lined up, but I’ve decided not to care about that.) I now have it almost entirely done, and I’m sure it will make a good gift for somebody’s baby someday. At the moment, I don’t know any babies.

I was actually so excited about my now-remedial sewing machine abilities that I ran out and got yards and yards of yummy fabric at Purl Patchwork today too. The next one will be grownup size, and just for me!

One new beginning down, two to go.

Published
by
Anna
on September 9, 2007
in Crafted Things
. 5 Comments

Why This Book Is Giving Me the Creeps

I’m currently reading Ian McEwan’s Atonement, and it’s seriously freaking me out. Here’s why.

atonementI picked up Atonement at Borders a couple of weeks ago because I’d been meaning to read it for a while and because it was on their “3 for 2″ table, which I have a hard time resisting. (But it’s always that third book that’s trouble, isn’t it? After finding two you know you want, mysteriously, all the rest seem to turn into middling food-themed chick lit.)

Halfway through the second chapter, I get this odd feeling of deja vu, as if I’ve read this part of the book before. It occurs to me that it was probably published as an excerpt in The New Yorker some time ago, and that’s why it seems vaguely familiar. Anyway, it’s enjoyable.

Then I reach the third or forth chapter, and I get the same feeling about another scene in the novel, as if I read it a long time ago, but didn’t really read it. It’s more like I dreamed it. I don’t know what’s going to happen next, but once it happens, I’m thinking “oh yeah, that’s what was going to happen.”

Once I approached the middle of the book, it really started to get to me. I tried to explain the mystifying feeling to my husband, and he suggested that I probably read the book before and then forgot about it. I often read a book and then forget what it was about, and sometimes I start reading a book, and then realize that I had already read it a long time ago. But I’ve never had a such a hazy half-recognition that lasted throughout an entire book. And there’s no way that I could have read it a long time ago, because it was only published five years ago.

So I must conclude that I’m losing it. I must have read the book at some point within the past five years, and then it was zapped from my memory when I hit my head on something. Either that or Mr. McEwan somehow plagiarized my dreams.

Published
by
Anna
on September 6, 2007
in Not-So-Cute Things and Read Things
. 8 Comments

Plecky the Pleco

This is Plecky.

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Plecky is a Rubbernose Pleco, and he has been pestering me to write about him on my blog for months.

Plecos are a kind of catfish, and they suck. Literally. Plecky doesn’t do much swimming around our tank; during he day, he prefers to adhere himself to the glass with his big funny mouth and sit there all day long. (He is nocturnal, so who knows what he does when we’re sleeping.)

Plecky is a little misanthropic—he doesn’t like us looking at him. If you get in his range of sight, he’ll flap around a bit and find a new place to sit, usually stuck right to the front of the tank, where he can’t see you anymore. (And to him, this means that you can’t see him anymore, either.)

But that just means that we get a great view of his fascinating underside!

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According to my fish expert husband, Plecky won’t get too much bigger than 3 inches long. Most pleco species get much bigger, however, so it’s important to do your research before bringing home one of these cute little guys!

Published
by
Anna
on September 5, 2007
in Cute Things
. 8 Comments

Rainbow Busters

While you admire a post-shower rainbow from afar, a pack of little grayish sprites are working to dismantle it as quickly as possible.

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This is the mission of the Rainbow Busters: to rid the world of all its annoyingly clichéd color.

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Their methods are varied, from spray painting the rainbows black to ripping them to shreds.

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Even this baby Buster has found a way to be helpful destroying a baby rainbow:

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Thanks to the Rainbow Busters, someday our skies may be free of color pollution.

The piece measures 10.5″ long by 9″ tall; each Buster is about 2.5″ tall. (Baby is 1″.)

Published
by
Anna
on September 3, 2007
in Knitted Things
. 11 Comments

Shock and Awe Metalwerx

This weekend I was happy to learn that my good friend Audrey has just launched her new Etsy shop to sell her original, handmade jewelry.

Audrey has been making jewelry for a number of years now, and I’m lucky enough to have been the recipient of some of her amazing designs. Though she’s a very versatile artist, she specializes in pieces made of natural and found materials. Here are a couple of my faves from her shop:

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These earrings are made from silver, carved wood, and coffee seeds.

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And these ones are made from silver, bullet shells and broom straw.

I’m always impressed by how unexpected but also really elegant her work is. And her prices are very affordable, so I wouldn’t be surprised if she sells out soon.

Published
by
Anna
on September 2, 2007
in Awesome Things
. 3 Comments