Year: 2014

Photo Contest ’14: The Big Vote!

Posted on December 11, 2014December 16, 2014 by Anna

Update: Congratulations to the winners!

It’s voting day in Mochimochi Land! After much deliberation, John and I have selected 15 finalists from the hundreds of photos entered in the 8th Annual Mochimochi Photo Contest.

Presenting your top 15 photos!

pc14_finalists

Which of these, in your opinion, are the cutest, funniest, most original photos of Mochimochi toys? Cast your ballot below! To help make things fair, we’re asking that everyone please vote only one time, but PLEASE VOTE FOR AT LEAST TWO PHOTOS. You can vote for even more—as many as you like!

The poll will be open through this weekend, and we’ll announce the top three winners, along with the top video winner (selected by us), on Tuesday, December 16th. Be sure to return for the results!

[POLL CLOSED]

Happy Holidays from Nickelodeon + Mochimochi Land!

Posted on December 10, 2014 by Anna

In 2013 I got to work with Nickelodeon on animated holiday IDs using Mochimochi Land creatures and some mochi-fied Nick characters. I’m happy to say that the animations are back on this month, and there are new ones too! I’ll share more soon, but you can also tune in to Nickelodeon to catch them on air.

Photo Contest ’14: Honorable Mentions

Posted on December 8, 2014December 10, 2014 by Anna

Over the weekend John and I spent a good while looking at all the delightful photos and videos you submitted to the 8th Annual Mochimochi Photo Contest. It’s hard work, but we’re the lucky someones who must do it!

We’re going to do things slightly different than in previous years because of our new video category: today we’re revealing the Honorable Mentions in the photo portion of our contest, and later this week we’ll go straight into voting on the finalists. (No semifinalist round this year). We’ll announce the winning photos and winning video (which John and I will select ourselves) at the same time, then after the winners are announced, we’ll feature the rest of the video entries for everyone to see.

So without further ado, it’s our honor to present the Honorable Mentions! These photos didn’t quite make it into our finalist group, but we were tickled by them nonetheless and we’re exited to feature them here. See the full images close up after the jump!

pc14_honorablementions

Continue reading “Photo Contest ’14: Honorable Mentions” →

Heather’s Tiny Nativity

Posted on December 5, 2014December 5, 2014 by Anna

The Christmas crafts continue today with this sweet tiny nativity made by Heather (Muppetfeet on Ravelry).

On the project page, Heather says that the characters were all based on the Tiny Nun pattern (from the Tiny People collection). That just goes to show how much of a difference an embroidered beard can make!

I also really like the effect of the I-cord hands holding beads as magi gifts. And the adorable tiny donkey (which appears to be the knitter’s design).

From Heather’s page:

Inspired by the lovely folks at First Church Somerville, including my model for the Wise Drag Queen, Miss Serenity Jones.

I knew this was a special project when I spotted it on Ravelry! Also inspiring: the rainbow baby Jesus.

Thank you to Heather for sharing with us!

And to those of you anxiously awaiting photo + video contest results, please check back Monday, when we’ll reveal the Honorable Mentions!

Miriam Felton’s Tiny Mochi Advent Calendar

Posted on December 4, 2014December 4, 2014 by Anna

Earlier this year I started noticing a whole lot of tiny mochis popping up in knitwear designer Miriam Felton’s Instagram feed…

It turns out that she was knitting them for a tiny mochi advent calendar for her sister’s family!

How perfect are those little numbered drawers, right? The only hard part might be picking what goes in each drawer. But Miriam had a plan, as she described in her Instagram caption:

My favorite parts: It starts with the Christmas Tree since they put their tree up on Dec. 1 (sister’s birthday), the cat follows the mouse, then Santa follows the reindeer and Santa is on the 24th.

tinyadvent2

I bet someone is having a fun December so far with this! Of course, the mochis have loops attached to them for hanging on the tree.

tinyadvent3

Thank you to Miriam for sharing this project and for taking such great photos! If you’re not familiar with Miriam’s beautiful design work, be sure to check her blog and patterns at her website. Also, I just saw that Miriam will be at Knit 1 in Chicago for a meet-and-greet on December 8th!

Thank You for the Entries!

Posted on December 2, 2014December 4, 2014 by Anna

Every year for the past eight years I announce our photo contest with much excitement, then immediately start worrying that people are over it (“it” being the completely impractical activity of knitting toys and posing them for photographs) and no one will enter. And every year, as we get to the final days in the entry period, you all come through with the most amazing entries and I am so excited and grateful and moved.

This year we added a video category, and I’m happy to say that we received 17 entries! I think that’s pretty great for the first year. I can’t even count how many photo entries we had—it was hundreds. (Click on the image above to see them all now if you like!) Thank you SO MUCH to everyone who took time out of their busy lives to participate!

If you missed the December 1st deadline, don’t despair. We’ll be holding this contest again next year, so all photos uploaded to the Mochimochi Friends group will be eligible for (and automatically entered in) the 2015 contest.

We’ll be announcing honorable mentions and semifinalists here on the blog soon, so please check back—we’ll be asking for your help to determine the finalist photos and then the winners, and we want everyone to participate in that!

Deck the Walruses Pattern FREE with Purchase through Jan 1!

Posted on December 2, 2014December 2, 2014 by Anna

Our 2014 holiday pattern is here! With Deck the Walruses, you can knit up a wooly wally and a wardrobe of hats for him in an afternoon. Perfect for quick gifts and holiday decor!

The pattern automatically comes FREE with any purchase of $5 or more from the Mochimochi Shop through January 1st! A link to download the pattern will be emailed to you within 24 hours of your purchase. (You don’t have to add it to your cart.)

This is a really simple project: a spherical shape for the body, with a little embellishment on the face, and the tail and front flippers knit as separate pieces and attached.

I hope you all enjoy!

Tired Turkey

Posted on November 27, 2014November 26, 2014 by Anna

It’s become a tradition for me to post a picture of one of my cats looking vaguely turkey-like on Thanksgiving Day. I think we can all relate to this tuckered-out turkey!

soupy_sleepy

Today I am giving thanks for an awesome husband and two adorable cats, for my larger family and friends, for my assistant Maureen, for art and music and creative encounters, and for getting to do what I love for a job. And anyone who happens to be reading this post, thank YOU for being here and sharing Mochimochi Land with me.

Stay safe this weekend, don’t get into any Black Friday fights, remember to submit your photo contest entries by Monday, and also check back on Monday for the reveal of our 2014 holiday pattern!

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!