I just had the best weekend at the 5th Anniversary Vogue Knitting LIVE! It seems strange to return to NYC and spend the entire three days in Times Square, but I loved every minute of it (except for the black ice on Sunday—whoa that was a weird way to start the day). So much fiber excitement, so many familiar faces and friendly new ones too!
And this year, Mochimochi Land was back in classic form.
I brought back elements from the display that I showed at the first VK LIVE (which itself had been a modified form of my 2010 show Greetings from Mochimochi), and added new scenes and characters. Setup on Friday was an intense seven hours of arranging, pinning, and stitching, but maybe there’s nothing I love more than to dump out a big pile of mochis and figure out what they’re all going to do with (and to) each other.
See more after the jump!
The lighting was far from ideal, so unfortunately I don’t have super photos to share, but highlights included a couple of lovebird lumberjacks,
a sumo wrestler playing an arcade game,
a whole community of cave people,
and a carnie elephant catching some air, Up-style.
The two giant floors of marketplace were too much for me to take in completely, but I loved seeing the other fascinating art on display and meeting the people behind it.
Like Sara Elizabeth Kellner of Rabbit Hole Knits, who brought an adorable setup for her beautiful toys designs,
and Huckleberry Delsignore, who showed her creepy-cool crocheted masks,
and Madame Tricot, who brought an actual refrigerator full of the most wonderfully made knitted food, which somehow I missed photographing! (Probably because there were always people in front of it oohing and ahing.)
And Nathan Vincent, who had whipped up the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World for Lion Brand, each of which incorporated a different technique, or “wonder,” of knitting or crochet.
The Great Wall of granny squares was my favorite!
On Sunday the hunt was on for tiny balloons, ten of which were hidden around the marketplace for people to find. The successful hunters:
They each won a copy of Teeny-Tiny Mochimochi, which doesn’t have the tiny balloon pattern in it, but guess what: it WILL be in my next book (coming in June)!
Mysteriously, only eight of the balloons were located, so two are out there somewhere, perhaps hanging out in Brooklyn now.
Thank you to everyone who came out, and to the VK LIVE team for another fantastic show! It’s really the best way to kick off a year.