Yesterday on Ravelry I got wind of Robyn Love’s new knitted city window display at the Lion Brand Studio on 15th street in NY. I must go see this in person!
The idea reminds me of my cities under attack by giant cute things, except way bigger and with more details like tiny cars and pigeons.
You can see more photos from the display at Robyn’s blog.
Just heard Passion Pit on the All Songs Considered podcast about upcoming SXSW performances. It’s happy—a bit reminiscent of The Postal Service, except I think it will take much longer to tire of Passion Pit.
This is “Sleepyhead” from their album Chunk of Change. (Best not to look directly at the video for long though, because it’s super dizzying.)
I think I read that they’re coming out with another album in May. Can’t wait!
Spring just can’t come fast enough, am I right?
Until the temperature stays above 50 degrees for consecutive days, we’ll have to settle for warm thoughts and spring-like images, like this charming Snails and Slugs mobile made by Ravelry user colala.
I want one of these for my bedroom!
You can make your own Snails and Slugs with this free pattern on the Mochimochi Blog.
Kate Jeffery also recently finished an outdoorsy mobile of her own, with cute bugs!
As I mentioned last month, you can get Kate’s dragonfly pattern for free on Ravelry.
Two months ago John set up a new 50-gallon fish tank in our living room and populated it with 25 cory catfish. They are too cute!
I just spent the past ten minutes trying to take their picture, but they’re a bit camera shy. The best I could do was a photo of a single cory at rest.
It doesn’t show up so well in the photo, but one of the cute things about corys is the way that their gills are pink, which makes them look like they’re always blushing.
You can see photos of all different kinds of corys at PlanetCatfish.
I’m now back in NYC after a productive trip to Oklahoma. I was having some amazing toy photography done there by my friend Brandi Simons, for a project that I’m eager to talk about at a future date.
The city always seems bigger after I’ve been gone for a few days. At least there aren’t any giant snails attacking it!
This one-of-a-kind knitted piece is now available for $80. It measures about 6.5″ wide and 6″ tall.
Please email me at info@mochimochiland.com if you’re interested in purchasing it.
One of my Christmas presents last year was Cartoon Modern: Style and Design in 1950s Animation by Amid Amidi. I finally gave it a good thumbing through last week, and after seeing so many fun and interesting stills from mid-century experimental animations, I was eager to find what was available on Youtube.
Happily, one of the more obscure-seeming mentions from the book was an easy find. I encourage you to watch at least part of this strange and wonderful 1959 animation made for the temperance board of the Methodist Church, of all things. It’s about the dangers of driving recklessly, it stars an alien who resembles a stylized automobile (or maybe Rainycloud, even), and it’s truly fascinating in its modern design and incorporation of jazz music with the moving images.
Unlike my other trips, this time lots of toys are coming with me! Including this work in progress, who will be making a Mochimochi Land debut sometime this spring.
Update: I made it to Tulsa, but unfortunately my little WIP guy did not, along with the rest of my checked baggage. Let’s hear it for carry-ons.
Another Update: My bag is here, only 34 hours late! Let’s hear it for wearing your own underwear again.
You might be familiar with Molly Schnick from her craft posts on the Purl Bee, the blog of New York’s Purl stores (favorites of mine and anyone else who has ever visited.) You might not have known that Molly is an accomplished musician as well!
After playing with the indie electronic band Out Hud earlier this decade, Molly released her own album under the name Jean on Jean last year. Also titled Jean on Jean, the album is nostalgic, a bit girly, and has gorgeous instrumentation—it’s more or less the musical equivalent to her style of unassumingly beautiful crafts.
Here is a video she recently released for the first track, titled “Tonight.”