Happy Easter weekend, everyone!
If you’re looking for some last-minute quick knits, check out our FREE springtimey patterns for Grass, Tiny Chickens, Snails & Slugs, and Tiny Baby Bunnies.
Year: 2014
Amy Hicks’s Oakley the Bear
Amy Hicks, winner of our 2012 photo contest, just released her first pattern! Meet Oakley the Bear.
It makes me happy to see knitters try their hand at design. Everyone has their own unique approach and style. (The felt details on this guy are so sweet!)
You can buy Amy’s pattern on Ravelry or at her Etsy Shop.
Congrats, Amy!
Happy Bunny Passover
This is a re-blog, but fhmitchellaud’s Steinbunny family celebrating Passover is cute enough for another go-around!
This was one of the many fun entries that we got in our Tiny Bunny photo contest from 2012. (And the tiny baby bunny pattern is free!) And speaking of which, stay tuned for a big photo contest announcement coming soon…
Happy Passover to those who are celebrating this week!
Vintage View-Master Magic
Happy Friday, everyone! If you’re wondering where my Shop Talk posts went, I’m putting the series on hold for a bit while my design and knitting work is insane for the next few weeks. It will definitely return later with more tips and stories from my work as a designer!
Today I have wonderful vintage cuteness to share. Earlier this week, while I was in the middle of knitting dozens of characters and props for an upcoming photo shoot, I got some unexpected inspiration from the blog of Lance Cardinal, a set designer whose finely detailed models always blow me away. He had scanned TONS of vintage (1960s-’80s) View-Master reels featuring the coolest 3-D scenes of popular cartoons.
Maybe I saw some of these as a kid, but either way I’m blown away by the style and level of detail in the carefully constructed scenes. Lance actually scanned each slide, so the complete stories are on his website. He’s also got a post with several photos taken on the sets of these stories.
These are so amazing to me, I have to share more.
OK, some are cuter than others. But I love the knitting in that one!
Seeing all these cool slides on Lance’s blog led me to find the a website called View-Master World, which introduced me to tons more weird vintage Vew-Master goodness, including this scene in which Barbie is climbing a pyramid in Egypt.
This might sound kooky, but all of this was just the inspiration I needed this week. Back to knitting!
Sweet Sweet Roving
On Sunday I did something I’ve wanted to do for a long time: buy lovely cotton candy clouds of wool roving!
I got these at from Esther’s Place at YarnCon, the Chicago indie yarn gathering that I didn’t even know existed until a couple of weeks ago.
Honestly, I’m always so tempted by the roving when I go to yarn shows that it was probably just a matter of time before I bought some for no reason, but happily I have a reason—a tiny bit of needle felting that I’m incorporating into a little project (that has to remain a bit mysterious for now).
I’ve only tried needle felting once before, when I took a workshop with Moxie a few years back. It’s a craft that I admire more than I practice, but I do have to say that I love the portability of it, and stabbing things over and over again with a needle is one of the best stress relievers I’ve experienced.
I would love to find ways to incorporate more roving into my life. Maybe there should be a roving fight at the next TNNA—like a pillow fight, but with big colorful clouds of fluffy wool flying everywhere. Who’s in?
Tiny Ballerina Kits are Here!
I’m excited to announce that we now have tiny ballerina kits in the Mochimochi Shop! I just couldn’t resist packaging this pattern up as a kit—we needed to get a little lady in the collection!
The kit comes with the pattern and enough yarn (Cascade Heritage, a wool/nylon blend) and stuffing to to knit up three tiny dancers. They make sweet little gift toppers, ornaments, and more. The kit makes a cool gift for fellow knitters too!
The kit is $12 in the shop. (International shipping is available!)
Hello Gudetama
Big news in cuteness! Sanrio has just introduced a new character named Gudetama, who is a weird little egg yolk guy and my new favorite Sanrio character.
This struck me as a little edgy for Sanrio, so my first thought when I saw it on Jezebel was that it might be some kind of delayed April Fool’s joke. But it seems to be for real. Yay!
Katie Boyette’s Tiny Knits
Katie Boyette—AKA Caffaknitted—is knitting tiny things! I think these chairs are just delightful.
And this guitar!
The felt and other embellishments really make these pieces. So clever!
If you’re not familiar with her work, Katie has written several books of toy knitting patterns and more, and we’ve even both contributed to the same art shows in the past. I love the way she engineers her projects in unexpected ways. See more at Caffaknitted.com!