Author: Anna

Knit Picks Podcast Interview & Giveaway

Posted on by Anna

I was excited to be interviewed recently for the newest Knit Picks podcast, which is now available! Stacey and I had a nice chat about knitting toys and how I came up with all the creepy and kooky characters in Super-Scary Mochimochi. Sometimes podcast interviews make me nervous, but it really helped that I’d met Stacey previously at TNNA and she’s super cool.

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Since Knit Picks is awesome, they’re also doing a giveaway of 3 copies of my new book! Just leave a comment on their giveaway blog post.

Big thank-yous to Stacey and Knit Picks!

Designing Mochimochi on Whipup

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Kathreen of Whipup recently asked me to put together a guest post for her blog, for a series on designing knitting patterns. It’s always an honor to get a mention on Whipup, and guest posting is even better!

I had a new design in mind, so I thought it would be fun to take Whipup readers along as I worked on it, from sketch to finish.

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See more of this new Mochimochi design come together in the Whipup post! There are also other great entries to read in the guest designer series. (By the way, I promised a November release date for this guy, and that’s looking a little iffy now… I’ll do my best!)

Book Signing at Knitty City Oct 6 + NYC Yarn Crawl

Posted on by Anna

The Super-Scary events continue as Mochimochi Land’s creepiest new creatures try to take over New York City! This Saturday (October 6th) we’ll be at Knitty City.

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I’ll be there from 3-5 pm with my Super-Scary display and plenty of books, so please stop by if you’re in the city! This is not a formal event, so I’m just looking forward to hanging out at one of my favorite yarn stores and chatting with knitters about knitting tiny zombies, mummy cats, and dead toasters. And even if it’s a little far for you, I still hope to see you there because this weekend is also the NYC Yarn Crawl!

The characters from Super-Scary Mochimochi are playing a key role in this year’s crawl: they have the honor of being the must-find items for the scavenger hunt.

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These guys will be hiding in the 10 participating local yarn stores around the city, and it’s up to you to find them! Find out more about it all on the NYC Yarn Crawl website.

Tiny Squirrel Goes Nuts

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Thank you for all the tiny squirrel captions over the weekend! It was too hard to pick a favorite, so the best we could do was narrow it down to three cute ones…

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From Lydia:

There once was a squirrel who was keen
On tasting a raw coffee bean.
But it was caffeinated,
Thus he was stimulated
And since then he’s never been seen!

From Starparty2000:

Tiny Squirrel is very sorry he bit the Tiny Snowman, from behind he thought it was a white peanut…

And lastly, from Johnna:

Tiny Squirrel is the one who hoards all those stitch markers and tapestry needles that you thought were lost!

Congrats to these clever caption writers, each of whom will get the upcoming Tiny Fall pattern collection for free! It’s coming to the Mochimochi Shop soon, so please stay tuned for Tiny Squirrel, Tiny Bat, and more!

Tiny Squirrel

Posted on by Anna

UPDATE: We had so many great Tiny Squirrel captions that we picked three winners!

The requests have been coming in for years, and here he finally is: Tiny Squirrel!

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What kind of squirrelly behavior does a tiny squirrel get up to in Mochimochi Land? Leave your caption in the comments, and we’ll pick our favorite one on Monday. The winner will get the soon-to-be-released Tiny Fall patterns for free! (And yes, Tiny Squirrel is included!)

Love Your Boo

Posted on by Anna

It’s late September, the weather is becoming crisp, the light’s getting softer… it’s getting to be prime Boo knitting season! Really, Boo is a project that’s good for any weather, but his favorite time of the year is definitely fall, as shown by Amanda (who won our annual photo contest with this image a few years back)…

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There are now more than 800 Boos on Ravelry—wow! Here’s a small sample of just how diverse this mochimochi species is…

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Left to right, top to bottom: Boos by aranyita, PurpleIrisCrafts, CrochetAmy, iamkashi, Fios, kendraja, MissSophie, minkey, sleeplessnscandia, RueDeekins, okate, ImpEmberStar

I love how dramatically different everyone’s Boos are—just by choosing a fun texture or color combination of yarn, your Boo will look like no one else’s!

And of course some knitters have come up with more elaborate pattern modifications, of which my favorite is this beautiful wing designed by Carissa Browning (aka nosmallfeet on Ravelry).

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Carissa was awesome enough to share her wing mod on her Ravelry project page, but I liked it so much that I asked her permission to include it in the official Boo pattern—and she said yes! I’m excited to be able to share her mod with even more people this way (with full credit going to Carissa, of course).

Have you knitted a Boo of your own lately? Please share your Boo on Ravelry and in our Mochimochi Flickr group!

Lion Brand Yarn Studio Got Super-Scary!

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I had the best time debuting my new book at the Lion Brand Yarn Studio in NYC last week!

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Thursday evening the Studio hosted me for a Super-Scary Mochimochi talk, in which I shared some of the inspiration behind the book and behind-the-scenes details from my favorite projects. It was so nice to get a warm welcome from the staff and a great crowd of toy knitters!

Before the talk we squeezed in a video interview with studio director Patty Lyons:

I think I’m gradually getting less nervous when you put me in front of a video camera… progress!

Then on Sunday I was back at the Studio to teach a zombie knitting class. Look at the adorable mix of scary zombies that we ended up with!

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I love a class in which everyone can finish a project and take it home.

A bit thank-you to everyone at the Lion Brand Yarn Studio for a great event and class!

What I’m Knitting to: Alfred Hitchcock Presents

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I just spent the last couple of weeks in Oklahoma, working with my book photographer Brandi Simons by day and hanging out with my parents and sister on nights and weekends. (Sometimes those spheres overlapped when we needed extra helping hands with photo shoots!)

On this trip my parents were eager to introduce me to their latest Netflix favorite: Alfred Hitchcock Presents, which are brief, suspenseful dramas that aired on television in 1955 to 1957. My parents both remember watching the show when they were kids, so it has a high nostalgia factor for them. But the show really holds up as entertaining TV, and I found that it’s perfect to knit to!

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Each episode is about the typical half-hour length, but there’s something about the pacing and the simple conceits of the stories that make them seem shorter than that. That’s not to say that they’re too simplistic—the acting is often brilliant, and the endings all contain wicked twists, which, while often predictable, are usually thoroughly satisfying.

A recent favorite of mine was the man who was suspected of murdering his wife. When he finds out that friends think he has killed her, and they reveal to him her many affairs at the same time, he basically shrugs and says to himself, “might as well murder her then!” And he does. It looses a little of its charm in my retelling, but like many episodes, it’s comedic and dark at the same time.

The single plot line, high-drama acting style, and limited number of characters make this show ideal for couch knitting, when I can’t always be looking at the TV. But it’s also entertaining enough that I would even—get this—watch it without knitting at the same time.

So that’s what I’ve been knitting to lately. What have YOU been knitting to (or stitching to, or otherwise crafting to)? Please share in the comments!