I’m often at my desk working on a project with both drawers open, and I feel like the captain of some whimsical white knitting ship in a remake of Spaceballs.

He thinks somebody needs a hug!

Shannon suggested a Tiny Cactus in the comments back in July, so she gets a free pattern!

Coming soon to the Mochimochi Shop!

The plates are Royal Copenhagen porcelain and hand-printed by Lisa. The neon pom-poms are just the perfect touch too!

This is just part of Lisa’s show “Owls Have More Fun,” which is up through March 26th. You can also download a catalog of the plates from the gallery website. (Click on the link below the “go shopping” button.)

It’s kind of a dream of mine to make plates someday. But I probably can’t hope to make any this awesome!

This sweet guy was made by Emily, aka Taffyyarn on Ravelry. Blythe doesn’t seem so impressed by the attention, but those color schemes were just meant to be together.

This cute photo reminds me to remind YOU to keep adding your photos of Mochimochi toys to the Mochimochi Friends group on Flickr—anything added to the group pool is automatically in the running for the 2010 Mochimochi Photo Contest (official deadline TBA).

If you haven’t entered the photo contest before, check out the guidelines for the 2009 contest.

See all that pretty green Cascade yarn in the bottom drawer over there? I wound all of it into neat balls the other night, and I could have kept going for hours! Winding yarn seems like the kind of thing that people in the 19th century did for fun at county fairs.

Anyway, the yarn is for a very exciting project that should, with any luck, take shape this fall. For now it just looks like a big thick blanket.

By the way, a big thank-you to Brooklyn General for being host to a great Mochimochi class and trunk show yesterday!

I made this not-so-tiny orange elephant yesterday using Lamb’s Pride bulky yarn and size 6 needles. (The pattern is written for fingering-weight yarn and size 1 needles.) I didn’t have to do a single thing differently—the pattern scaled up perfectly! I love how toy patterns are so flexible in this way, don’t you?

Speaking of Tiny Elephants, my Tiny Elephant class is happening tomorrow (Sunday 3/7) at Brooklyn General! I’m really excited about it. If you’re in the area and are not taking the class, I hope you’ll swing by the store after noon, when I’ll be hanging out there with a bunch of knitted friends.

He’s a pretty decent guy—just don’t let him sell you any car insurance.

It seems that nobody has suggested that I make a tiny caveman before, so this one is all me!

You may have noticed it there on the right sidebar of my blog - if you click on that link, you can pre-order it and get it when it’s released in late June. (It’s also great if you want to wait until the summer and buy it from your favorite LYS.)

There are more projects than shown on the inside, and there are also lots of beautiful on-location photos taken by the amazing Brandi Simons inside. (I can’t share those right now, but I’ll definitely give an inside peek when I can!)

If you’re wondering, the big-mouthed guy featured on the cover is a wearable slipper called a Feet Eater! In addition to animals and inanimate objects, the book contains patterns for a number of extremely silly wearable toys. I’ll be sharing more details about the book, including some photos from Brandi’s shoots, in the coming months, so stay tuned!

The toy comes from the Kidrobot Futurama series.