Author: Anna

Just Making Friends

I’ve just started going through all the photos in this year’s contest, and I have to say, there are loads of great ones this year! There is definitely a fun sub-category of photos that feature cute pets along with knitted creatures, so I thought I’d share one of my own.

soupy_train

Soupy is always ready to help with my knitting projects. When I was working on my installation this summer, I often had to shut him and his brother Nipsey out of the room, because I was basically building a wonderland of cat toys that they weren’t supposed to touch. It must have been torture for them, and they let me know it by banging on the door incessantly until I got my work done and put everything back in plastic bags. I love how innocent Soupy looks in this picture, as if he isn’t thinking about pouncing on his new train friend as soon as my back is turned.

500+ Photos!

The deadline for the 2010 Mochimochi Photo Contest just passed. It looks like we got more than 500 entries again this year—thank you all so much for your photos!

John and I can’t wait to look carefully through all the great photos in the Flickr pool. Once we’ve narrowed them down just a bit, we’ll share our honorable mention picks, and then everyone will get to help narrow down the semifinalists into finalists for the big final vote. So be sure to check back here for all the fun!

Last Day to Submit Your Photos!

Today (Monday) is the last day to enter the 2010 Mochimochi Photo Contest! Upload your pics of Mochimochi Land projects to the Mochimochi Friends group on Flickr by midnight tonight to have them eligible for this year’s contest.

But if you’re a little behind, don’t worry! All photos added to the group after midnight tonight will be automatically entered in next year’s contest. So late photos are actually very early entries!

You Know You Want a Memo Mushi

I don’t know about you, but my memos are always in a state of disarray. If you’re the winner of the Mochimochi Photo Contest, though, you’ll get to organize your memos in this sophisticated cat Memo Mushi, straight from Japan!

memomushi

This is just one of the many prizes in store for the winners.

Monday is the deadline for entries—you can still totally knit up a Mochimochi toy and take a funny picture of it by then! See details here.

Mason-Dixon Doggie Wig

Kay of Mason-Dixon Knitting got creative with her dog Olive’s Halloween costume this year, and if you have a copy of Knitting Mochimochi, the look might seem a little familiar to you…

pigswithwigs_masondixon

That’s right, Kay based Olive’s “Lady Dogga” wig on the Beautiful Beehive from my Pigs with Wigs pattern! According to her blog post, it was quite a feat of engineering to make the wig stay perfectly perched on top of a roaming animal’s head. I am impressed! (It seems up for debate whether Olive was impressed, though.)

Mochimochi at Urban Craft Uprising

I’m excited to announce that I’ll be in Seattle next month at Urban Craft Uprising!

urbancraftuprising

The big craft show will happen at the Seattle Center Exhibition Hall on December 4th and 5th with more than 100 vendors selling everything handmade and awesome.

You’ll be able to find me near the entrance with copies of Knitting Mochimochi—there are official signings scheduled for Saturday at 2 pm and Sunday at 1 pm. I’ll also have some hand-knitted tiny things for sale AND I’ll be debuting knitting kits for some of my newest Tiny patterns too!

By the way, if that image above looks slightly “Mochimochi” to you, it’s because I’m responsible for it! Kristen Rask, one of the organizers of UCU, invited me to create the image for this year’s show to go on postcards and t-shirts. This was my first “real” illustration project, so I was a little unsure about the whole thing, and I was thrilled and relieved when my design was approved. I think I’m gradually getting better at using Adobe Illustrator, and I loved this opportunity. Thank you Kristen!

OK, I hope to see those of you in the Seattle area at this awesome event on December 4th and 5th!

Urban Craft Uprising
December 4th & 5th, 11 am – 5 pm
Seattle Center Exhibition Hall

Oiyi’s Forest Friends

Oiyi is a friend and one of my superstar testers, and she did a great job testing my new Forest Friends cross-stitch pattern a while back. She recently showed a pic of her results on her blog.

forestfriends_oiyi

Beautiful! Oiyi was a big help in making the pattern as user-friendly as possible.

Oiyi is actually venturing into knitwear designing herself, and she just released a pattern for this gorgeous shawl.

oiyi_kouyou

The design is called Kouyou, and you can buy the pattern as a download on her blog.