Month: June 2015

Free Pattern: Tiny Nosey Fish

Posted on by Anna

This is an intermediate-level BONUS pattern from Adventures in Mochimochi Land, now available from book sellers everywhere. (Signed copies are available from the Mochimochi Shop!)

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There are many fish in the sea, including some really funny looking ones! In Adventures in Mochimochi Land, a certain species of long-snouted fish can be seen sniffing out the fishiest candidate in an muddy debate and following their noses when casting votes in the underwater election.

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Combine with the other sea creatures from the book (plus tiny fish and mermaids from Teeny-Tiny Mochimochi), to fill out your knitted aquarium! (You do have a knitted aquarium, right?)

Continue reading “Free Pattern: Tiny Nosey Fish” →

Bumble Bee Beanie Kit Giveaway Winner

Posted on by Anna

Update: Kim sent a photo of her bee onesie—she wasn’t kidding about it!

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I don’t know about you all, but now I want a bee onesie too.

Last week I blogged about an interview that Let’s Knit magazine did with me in their July 2015 issue, and I threw in a giveaway because it’s a little boring to just talk about myself.

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It’s now time to randomly select a winner winner, which is… commenter number 8, Kim!

I had a huge collection of bee related stuff when I was little, and am currently sitting in my bee onesie as I type this, and with our first baby on the way, this would be awesome for them and me!

It seems that this is a very worthy winner. I for one would love to see this bee onesie that she was wearing as she typed!

Congrats, Kim! I’m emailing you for your mailing address right now.

Last Word Feature in Let’s Knit

Posted on by Anna

Update: Congrats to Kim for winning the Bumble Bee Beanie kit giveaway!

Let’s Knit, the UK knitting magazine, has a one-page feature on me for their back page in the July 2015 issue!

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I’m talking about how I first learned to knit, how Mochimochi Land got started, and about my new book.

Thank you to Molly at Let’s Knit for the nice feature!

One of the cool things about this magazine is that it always comes with a little gift. So with my copy I received a kit for a knitted baby Bumble Bee Beanie. Would you like to have it? Leave a comment saying why, and I’ll pick someone to give it to next week!

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Sarah’s Tiny Dolphin and Crab

Posted on by Anna

I was excited to see the first projects from Adventures in Mochimochi Land, a tiny Bubbles the Dolphin and Gary the Crab, pop up in our Flickr group this morning! True to character, Gary is giving Bubbles a tiny pinch on the nose.

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For being the first person to add a project from the book to our group, Sarahknits gets a fun little present, a Personal Happiness Labbit!

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Our photo and video contest is coming back in the fall, so go ahead and start adding your photos of Mochimochi knits to our Flickr group, and they will all be automatically entered.

More Adventurous Projects

Posted on by Anna

Thank you for a wonderful book release last week! I’ve been eagerly checking Ravelry and Facebook and Twitter to see the new Adventure mochis that you’re posting online. (Please also share them in the Mochimochi Friends Flickr group!)

Today I have some projects to share made by Joan Foster, a good friend of Mochimochi Land who’s been doing very creative things with my patterns over the years. (She’s really motivated me to up my game when it comes to dioramas and the like.) While I’m a firm believer of toys existing for their own sake—or rather, existing to be played with, or to be admired for their cuteness, or to be assembled into fantastical scenes—I know that more practical-minded people out there want toys that do practical things, or at least functional and specific things. And I totally get that!

With this functional angle in mind, I asked Joan to create some non-narrative projects using the creatures from Adventures in Mochimochi Land, and she came up with three really fun ideas.

Idea #1: Assemble a chess set!

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Most tiny mochis can make for fun game pieces, and you can really get creative in choosing the roles that they will play in a game of chess, along with color coordinating them all for teams. This set is composed of the magically delicious characters found in Sweet City: mallow bunnies are the pawns (they’re so easily gobbled up, after all); mini microwaves make good bishops (zapping right through those diagonal squares); Biscuit is the queen for her heroic role in “The Hungry Donut”; and ferocious gum-gum bears are the kings. (Or maybe it’s the other way around for the kings and queens?)

For pieces that aren’t so capable of standing up on their own, you can stitch them to buttons to use as stable bases.

Idea #2: Make a mobile!

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There’s something about a handmade mobile that’s just irresistibly adorable, and the projects in each of the stories in Adventures give you automatic themes to choose from. Of course, the skyward setting of “The Lighthearted Lovers” is perfect for this project.

Wrap a floral wreath with yarn for a hanging structure, center the action around a carnival tent, then have fun adding balloons and clouds and rainbow birds. (Joan knitted the blimp from the story in fingering-weight yarn instead of worsted to make it a perfect size for a tiny elephant perch.)

Idea #3: Party decorations and favors!

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An “under the sea” birthday has certainly been done before, but adding hand-knit sea creatures to the festivities might make the occasion a bit more memorable. I think most kids (or adults) wouldn’t turn down a mini dolphin, crab, or puffer fish as a party favor, and the treasure chest and the joyful oyster, two more projects from “The Underwater Election,” can even hold goodies to give out.

Huge thanks to Joan for coming up with the concepts and executing these adorable ideas!

Knit Picks Podcast Interview

Posted on by Anna

If you follow me on Twitter, you know that I’m a big podcast listener. (I even write about them for The A.V. Club’s Podmass feature.) So it’s exciting in a surreal way to be a guest on a podcast, as I recently was for the Knit Picks Podcast, hosted by Holly Klein.

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I use Knit Picks yarn for soooo many projects (including lots of the patterns in Adventures in Mochimochi Land), so it was a pleasure to do this!

Holly asked me about how Mochimochi Land came to be, and all about my new book. The theme of the episode is cute stuff, so after my interview Holly talks to listeners about the cutest knitting projects they’ve tackled.

Thanks to Holly for having me on!