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August 15: Delicious Dogs virtual workshop with MDK 🌭

Posted on by Anna

Happy summer! I’m excited to be teaching a virtual DELICIOUS DOGS workshop with Modern Daily Knitting during this summer’s dog days (or close enough)—August 15th!

Join me in making a cute and classic little hot doggie in this 2.5-hour online workshop. Don’t forget the mustard! We’ll cover all the tiny toy knitting basics: Knitting in the round with a small circumference on double-pointed needles, I-cord appendages for teeny legs, picking up and knitting stitches for the flappy ears, and simple embroidery for the features. Plus, a bit of mattress stitch to seam your dog’s bun halves together.

And this workshop comes with a kit to make three delicious dogs, including my ice cream doggie and doggie slider!

See the MDK website for all the details and registration.

I hope to see you and your dogs there!

A WOOLLY WOOLLY Welcome!

Posted on by Anna

I have big news! TV-big!

WOOLLY WOOLLY is a new animated series based on the world that I’ve been knitting since 2007. More than eight years in the making, this show goes beyond my wildest dreams of where my stitches could go, thanks to Groupe PVP, co-producer Normaal, and an incredible production team that spans two continents!
The episodes, which are created for a preschool audience, follow the adventures of a family of knitted gnomes (the Woollys) and the creatures who live in their woolly world. The Woollys can knit anything! So soft, cozy adventures and creative play abound.

Each story begins as two “real life” kids turn to their knitted friends to work through something in their non-knitted lives. I love how this captures the imagination and anything-is-possible rules of real kids engaging in open-ended creative play.

In addition being an executive producer, I’ve been involved with WOOLLY WOOLLY as a creative consultant throughout its development, so I’ve gotten to work with the uber talented team of designers, writers, and animators who have brought this world to life.

The series is computer animated with a stop-motion style that blows me away every time I see it. Seriously, from the textures to the movement to the little bits of fuzziness, director Emmanuel Linderer has created some unbelievable woolly magic!

The 52 11-minute episodes of WOOLLY WOOLLY are now airing in Canada on TVOkids and TVOkids Smart TV App, and on Knowledge Network and its Knowledge Kids App.

The French version is airing in Canada on TOU.TV and on ICI TÉLÉ as LES WOULLIS, and it’s available in Europe on France TV as WOOLLY WOOLLY.

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(Will WOOLLY WOOLLY come to other countries outside of France and Canada?? I sure hope so! And I’ll be sure to share the news when that happens.)

You can meet all the Woollys and learn more about their world, and even play a little Woolly game at woollywoolly.tv.

I’m so grateful to everyone who’s been involved in this project. I hope it will amuse and delight the kids and adults who see it, and it’s my dream that it will inspire viewers to create their own worlds, woolly or otherwise!

We ❀ YarnCon

Posted on by Anna

YarnCon this year was the best ever, and that’s saying a lot because this beloved Chicago indie fiber fair was already the best thing of its kind đŸ§¶âœš

Thank you to everybody who came out, everybody who checked out POOCHIPOOCHI Land, everybody who said hi, and everybody who bought stuff from me. (I love that I had to restock books, and almost sold out!)

The biggest thanks to Kristine Brandel for being the best imaginable help with this event (including all the prep that goes into it), and the biggest thanks to the wonderful people who work so hard to make YarnCon special every year!

Romantic Pterodactyls

Posted on by Anna

Love is in the air for two romantic pterodactyls 💕

This scene is inspired by my newest tiny dinosaur pattern, Ptara the Ptiny Pterodactyl—now available in the Knitrino app.

You probably won’t be able to knit just one Ptara, and you definitely won’t be able to resist making them soar majestically through the air while you screech your best pterodactyl sounds. (SCREECH SCREECH SREEEEEEECH means “I love you!”)

Happy Valentine’s Day!

SHORT DOG, LONG DOG is here!

Posted on by Anna

My new picture book is out now!

Following up on the prepositional cats in CATSIDE UP, CATSIDE DOWN, the dogs in SHORT DOG, LONG DOG are all about opposites! Because dogs come in all shapes, sizes, barks, and personalities—from huge and tiny to itchy on the head and scratchy on the hiney—they’re the perfect subjects to explore the world of antonyms.

The book is now on sale at all the major booksellers, and hopefully also at your local bookstore and yarn shop too. (If not, ask them to stock it!)

If you preordered this book, thank you so much! I hope you love it, and I would be so grateful if you left a review on Amazon—it makes a big difference to book sales and potential future books.

I absolutely loved putting this book together and I hope you’ll love reading it and sharing it. It’s for kids, dog lovers, word nerds, and knitters alike! đŸ¶đŸ’•

đŸ¶ Free pattern alert! đŸ¶

And for the knitters, there’s a free pattern to make the titular short and long dog. Available on Ravelry now!

đŸ¶ Fun event alert! đŸ¶

If you’re in the Chicago area, please join me for a Short Dog, Long Dog release party at Cog Cycles and Yarns on Sunday February 23rd!

We’ll have a book reading at 11am, then a drop-in-and-knit-dogs session after that. Hope you see you there!

Short Dog, Long Dog is dedicated to my sister-in-law, Jenna, an expert in all things canine and always a source of dog wisdom and dog fun facts. She helped me come up with which breeds of dogs would embody which characteristics for my extremely technical book. And she’s also just the best possible sister-in-law and aunt to my kids. Thank you, Jenna!

Jenna also has her own business making gorgeous dog toys and accessories—check them out at Think Smart Pets!

Free Pattern: Short Dog, Long Dog

Posted on by Anna

My new book is here! Short Dog, Long Dog is a picture book all about dogs doing opposites. Because dogs come in all shapes, sizes, barks, and personalities—from huge and tiny to itchy on the head and scratchy on the hiney—they’re the perfect subjects on the topic of antonyms!

I absolutely loved putting this book together and I hope you’ll love reading it and sharing it. It’s for kids, dog lovers, word nerds, and knitters alike! Find it at Amazon and other major booksellers, and hopefully also at your local bookstore and yarn shop too. (If not, ask them to get it!)

This free pattern is a quick, simple project that will make a short dog or a long dog—your choice! Either or both will make a fun gift to go with Short Dog, Long Dog. Enjoy!

Continue reading “Free Pattern: Short Dog, Long Dog” →

Happy New Year

Posted on by Anna

via GIPHY

🐍 2025 is the Year of the Snake! 🐍

The new year is already sending us swerves and surprises—to put it mildly—so why not knit a tiny snake or two for good luck? We’ll need it!

This sassy-sweet pattern is now available as a PDF download (Both here on Ravelry as Snake Charmer) and as a kit.

The quick project incorporates a bit of I-cord, intarsia knitting, and knitting in the round. You’ll add a pipe cleaner before seaming the belly with mattress stitch for a pose-able tail.

Linked videos will help you with intarsia, mattress stitch, and embroidery to give your snake a cute lil forked tongue.

The kit comes with the printed pattern, enough yarn and and stuffing to knit two snakes in red and gold, plus color-coordinated pipe cleaners to give your snakes’ tails a stylish swivel. (The matching colors help keep the pipe cleaner invisible inside.)

Here’s to a year of just enough smarts and silliness to succeed 🐍

Thank you to Marilyn Passmore for tech editing and Kristine Brandel for testing 💛

A little behind-the-scenes after the jump!

Continue reading “Happy New Year” →

VKL 2025!

Posted on by Anna

The Vogue Knitting Live skyscrapers made a personal appearance at the NYC show’s art gallery last weekend, walking a runway, posing in an art gallery, buying all the yarn possible, playing in a yarn ball pit, etc, etc!

It was fun to bring the props from the videos out to let these guys play IRL as their animations—all TWELVE of them—played on a monitor nearby.


(These are the first six—I still need to upload the rest to YouTube.)

My classes were also a ton of fun—I hope those who took them would agree! We made unicorns together and tiny knitted versions of ourselves and our favorite people. This was honestly the first time I felt (almost) totally relaxed about teaching and just enjoyed it. (The document camera on my hands with the footage projected on a screen helped a lot.)

Thank you to everyone who took my classes, who bought stuff from me, who checked out my little diorama, and who said hello in their gorgeous hand-knitted and -crocheted outfits. And thank you to the people of VKL!

You can see a little reel with videos and more photos of cool stuff from the show on my Instagram.