Author: Anna

Super-Scary Mochimochi Preview: Toaster Ghost

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What happens when you shove one too many frozen waffles into your rickety old toaster? You’ll end up with a big burned mess! Then once the smoke clears, you may find yourself confronted by…

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Toaster Ghost!

It’s the next preview from my upcoming book of monster knits, Super-Scary Mochimochi! (And that awesome photo is by Brandi Simons, of course!)

I have a special love for anthropomorphic knitted appliances, so I made sure to find a way to fit an undead one among the creepy characters in this book. Toaster Ghost is an interactive toy, complete with slots that you can place burned pieces of toast in!

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The pattern uses a number of techniques to get just the right shaping, and I think it’s a fun, challenging project for intermediate knitters.

Toaster Ghost would make a lovely companion piece to TV Guy from Knitting Mochimochi or even Flushie! Now I just need to design a knitted refrigerator, and you’ll never have to leave your craft room…

Super-Scary Mochimochi is now available for pre-order from Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Starting September 18th, it will be in local yarn stores throughout the US, and signed copies will be available from the Mochimochi Shop too.

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One more Super-Scary preview is coming up in a couple weeks, so stay tuned!

Inspiration: APAK

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It’s easy for me to point to things from my childhood that inspire my creativity now, because I’ve internalized them so much: Dr. Seuss, Pee-Wee’s Playhouse, Jim Henson movies, and the like. These artistic giants are such a big influence that they will always be with me. I find it a little harder to point to contemporary artists who inspire me, which has to do with a feeling I have that there are so many creative people out there, it would be an impossible task to discover them all. There is also a little negative comparison involved (I’ll never be as good as them), and also a kind of inspiration overload that I try to avoid (I’m talking about you, Pinterest).

These are feelings that I’m always working on, but sometimes I come across artists whose work is so enchanting and beautiful that my insecurities drop away, and I can just fall in love. One of those artists is APAK, a husband and wife team who together illustrate tiny worlds that I just want to jump into headfirst.

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I first saw Aaron and Ayumi Piland’s work a few years back when I was working at gallery hanahou. I was immediately drawn in by their gentle scenes and the way that their adorable characters are dwarfed by the nature surrounding them.

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Aaron and Ayumi been creating artwork together since 2005, and in addition to gallery shows, they do commercial projects and they sell prints and other products through their Etsy shop.

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This one is available as a really affordable limited-edition print:

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I really can’t choose a favorite piece by them, but I do find myself particularly charmed by their 3D work.

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Are you in love yet? The serene wonder of the world they’ve created always speaks to me when I’m I’m feeling less than peaceful. It’s an uncomplicated love for me!

A Tiny Glimpse of Fall

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As you’ve probably noticed if you’re a long-time reader of my blog, my “tiny challenge” has gone from a weekly feature to just an occasional one. (Two years of weekly Tinys was a pretty good run!) But making new tiny mochis a little less often means that I have a little more time to actually write up the patterns and get them out into the world.

So more tiny pattern collections are on the way, and I did a little photo shoot with the next batch yesterday. Here’s a peek!

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It was surprisingly easy to find pretty yellow leaves in my neighborhood to serve as autumnal props. I really can’t wait for fall, especially since cooler weather means that my new book is coming out soon, and then this tiny fall collection is coming in October!

Tiny Turtle Stacks ’em High

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Thank you all for the comments on Friday’s tiny turtle post! I had no idea that turtles came out of their shells to play so many games and sports.

Our winner suggested that the turtle in question most loves playing a classic game of skill and concentration…

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Tiny’s favorite game is Jenga. Slow and steady is definitely the key to winning, but if he happens to fail he is protected from the avalanche of blocks by his handsome shell!

That comment comes from Debbie!

As you can see, I thought it would be fun to have a demonstration of Tiny Turtle’s skill, but all we had in the apartment were knitting needles. It turns out they make a lousy substitution for Jenga blocks!

For her winning comment, Debbie gets the new Tiny People pattern collection!

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Thanks everyone for participating! If you’re interested in knitting a tiny turtle of your own, I hope to make the pattern available in the future.

Tiny Turtle

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Winning caption by Debbie:

Tiny’s favorite game is Jenga. Slow and steady is definitely the key to winning, but if he happens to fail he is protected from the avalanche of blocks by his handsome shell!

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Tiny Turtle knows that slow and steady wins the game. But what is his favorite game to play?

Let us know what Tiny Turtle’s game of choice is in the comments, and we’ll pick our favorite answer on Monday, August 20th. The winner will get the new Tiny People pattern collection!

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Gnome No Evil

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Lately I’ve been pretty swamped with new design work—exciting stuff, but sadly top-secret. When I’m not designing, I’ve also been taking cute photos like this one! I’m trying to slowly build a portfolio of images that could be postcards or other things like that. The gnomes are my favorite models, of course!

What I’m Knitting to: The Violinist’s Thumb

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It’s a new blog feature! As a designer, most days I’m lucky enough to spend a big chunk of time knitting, and I’m usually consuming other media as I do so—I listen to tons of music, podcasts, and audiobooks, and (depending on time of day) I watch TV and the occasional movie as I work on my latest project. Since these pieces of audio and visual culture are such a big part of my knitting, I think it makes sense to share some of them here.

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This month I’ve been listening to the audio version of The Violinists Thumb and Other Lost Tales of Love, War, and Genius, as Written by our Genetic Code, a new book by Sam Kean. I love history and pop science, and this book is a winning combination of them both. I imagine it’s difficult to write about the mechanics of DNA for a broad audience without either leaving most people behind with science-y talk or dumbing it down too much. At least for me, someone who never took a science course past high school (unless you count The Physiology of Music, which I don’t, because it sounded like fun but mostly went way over my head), Kean does it perfectly.

As for listening to this book instead of reading it, it’s been highly entertaining, but I occasionally feel like I’m missing something from not getting to see all those rows of Gs and Ts and As (not to mention Cs) written out in front of me. And I’m a little bit distracted by my knitting the entire time, of course, so that contributes to my missing a sentence or two sometimes. I’d actually be willing to listening to the entire thing over again at some point, and I’m sure I’d pick up on quite a bit that I missed the first time. But the book is highly entertaining with dramatic anecdotes from history even if you’re not entirely following what exactly that crazy DNA is doing.

Now the question goes to you, fellow knitters and makers: what are you knitting (or sewing, or tinkering) to this month?