Just two days left until spring is officially here, and Mochimochi Land is getting a head start with a brand-new pattern: Butterfull, the world’s fattest butterfly!
Butterfull knits up quickly, with techniques including i-cord, mattress stitch, and duplicate stitch. And nothing says “spring” like a bouquet of dead flowers, right?
You can buy the pattern as a PDF download here!
I’m now offering printed versions of Mochimochi Land patterns to yarn shops and other wholesale buyers! The patterns are printed in full-color on card stock, with step-by-step instructions and photos. Please email me at info@mochimochiland.com for more details.
If you or someone you love has a yarn store, I hope you’ll consider carrying Mochimochi Land patterns!
My sister and I got my mom an iPod shuffle for her birthday last year. She was mildly appalled when I showed her the iTunes store, where you have to buy music? I thought you kids all got it for free on Napster, which is illegal and wrong, by the way!
I asked her what song I should find on iTunes for her, and her immediate request was “Legendary Chicken Fairy,” the most psychedelic song title I’d ever heard. It turned out to be an actual song, by country duo Jack Blanchard and Misty Morgan, who wrote songs mostly about birds in the ’70s. My mom started signing along to the iTunes clip:
Chicken fairy in the sky
Mother Goose’s butterfly
Do whatsever’s necessary
Legendary chicken fairy
Sing a song that’s sanitary
Take my wish o big canary
Legendary chicken fairy…
Then my dad joined in from the kitchen. It was weird and kind of cute. But once the moment passed, my mom refused to pay money for the music by these people who apparently had some part in my parents’ courtship. (“Where’s all that free music I’ve heard about?”) We found some NPR podcasts instead. So for Christmas last year I gave my parents Life and Death (And Almost Everything Else), which includes “The Legendary Chicken Fairy” among its 29 tracks. It got a laugh, if not a long listen.
But it’s actually an impressive collection of songs. (I had bought the album for myself before getting another one for my parents.) Most of them are clever and melodic, and some are rather beautiful. A lot of them are about birds. I would recommend it to anyone with a sense of humor, and maybe kids.
This is a free and easy pattern for everyone to enjoy. Please check out the Mochimochi Shop for more patterns that you’ll love!
When they’re not vying to determine which species will slowly take over the world, snails and slugs make cute house pets. Knit some up for your friends and hide them in unusual places.
The pattern, which calls for fingering weight yarn, is a tiny bit fiddly, but very fast and super cute! Continue reading “Free Pattern: Snails and Slugs”
My husband and I bought some “Super Soft Dough” a few weeks ago to entertain our 3-year-old nephew, who was coming to visit for the evening. It turned out to be a success, keeping him entertained for a full 10 minutes out of the 4 hours or so that he was here.
I’ve since been the one to get the most entertainment out of the stuff, which has suddenly become my new favorite medium. (We kept it here, since our nephew tactfully declared “I have lots of this at my house,” when John presented it as a gift.) I love several things about it: it smells nice, it dries quickly, so you have to do something with it right away instead of sitting back and thinking about what you’re going to make, and the neon colors are fab.
Last night I made some nature scenes with it—I liked the effect of landscapes and animals in blindingly hot colors. Tonight I made a swimming pool.
It’s a fun way to brainstorm without the scariness of a blank page, and really relaxing too, since you can only have so much control over the crumbly substance. I recommend picking some up the next time you pass by a toy store, if you don’t already have some.
Hello, Mochimochi friends! I need to do some work on Mochimochi Land’s server today, so I have to turn comments off for a little while. They should be back up by tonight. Hold that thought!
Update: The server maintenance is finished, but because of circumstances out of my control, I can’t turn comments back on just yet. There’s no problem—I’m basically waiting for some people on the other side of the country to flick a switch for me! Hopefully they’ll have done this by tomorrow. I’m sorry for the delay.
Another Update: They never did flick that switch, but I’m turning on comments again until they do. I’ll probably have to take them down for just a little while later this week—should be brief. Thanks for your patience!
For round two of our competition, the gloves are coming off and it’s pure snail-to-slug combat!
We seem to have a clear winner this time. The snail is absolutely flattening that slug! Looks like he’s down for the count.
Our earthworm referee makes the call.
The ring is made up of one of those cardboard planters you get at a garden center, filled with potting soil. The polls are dandelions.
Next up: the eating contest! But first, I’ll post the free pattern for the snails and slugs here. Soon, I promise!
I spent last Saturday afternoon at a plush workshop taught by the famous Jenny Harada!
The workshop was held at Etsy Labs in Brooklyn, where Jenny took us through the basics of sketching pattern pieces and putting them together with a sewing machine. My hands were too busy to take any photos during the class, but Jenny let me take a quick photo of her with her mound of plushes afterwards.
Aside from making my own plush toy, I had a lot of fun looking through Jenny’s crazy creations and picking her brain about her design process. It’s funny how there are some similarities with making knitted toys, but sewing is still a little foreign to me. I think I’m gradually getting more comfortable with it, though.
So here is the monster I made! His name is Herman.
Herman’s shape is something I’ve had in mind for a while—I sketched out his body freehand, and I used Jenny’s patterns for his legs and horns. Don’t you love his purply furriness? The fur is great because it conceals less-than-skilled sewing.
Herman’s a lot of trouble, though. As soon as I brought him home, he started trying to eat everything in sight!
He tried to eat John’s stuffed elephant…
Then he went for the Woodins (log and all!)…
Even John wasn’t spared!
So we’ve got our hands full with our new friend. Maybe sometime soon I’ll try sewing something completely on my own!