This mini molar wasn’t happy to be kicked out of the No Cavities Club, but they’re just a bunch of elitists anyway, right?
The same person who first suggested this week’s Tiny Thing also was the first to suggest last week’s, so I’ll send a free pattern to the second person who suggested a Tiny Tooth, which was Abbie!
Just a reminder that I’ll be teaching a master class at the Lion Brand Yarn Studio next Sunday, August 29th. There are still some spots open, so if you’re in the NYC area and new to toy knitting, I recommend it!
We’ll be making the Baby Gators from Knitting Mochimochi.
[photo by Brandi Simons]
I’ve been happy to see photos of tiny gnomes, frogs, pancakes, and trash cans from the Tiny Things Collection 3 appearing in the
Mochimochi Friends Flickr group lately!
Some of my faves are…
vapmore’s watering can-guarding garden gnome:
(a cute photo, and a fantastic pattern tester!)
Margaritas8’s
frog-in-a-spoon:
and marianne’s stuff’s stacked pancakes!
Marianne also tested the pattern collection for me, as did Marti – thank you to all three of you testers!
As these knitters and photo-takers know, the two tricks to photographing tiny knits are focus and props. If you’re using a point-and-shoot camera, check to see if it has macro setting (the symbol for it commonly looks like a flower)—this will help you get your subject in focus when you’re shooting it up close.
As for props, this is something I could get more creative with myself! I like to use my hands as props a lot, because they’re always on hand (ha, ha), and they instantly show scale. But any common object, especially one that relates thematically (watering can for the gnome) or in design (stack of pennies with stack of pancakes), can make for a very cute and eye-catching photo.
Once you’ve finished your photo shoot, whether with one of these tiny guys or with another Mochimochi toy you’ve made, be sure to add your photos to the Mochimochi Friends Flickr group! You’ll have a chance to win fabulous prizes in the upcoming 2010 Mochimochi Photo Contest. (Official announcement coming soon!)
It’s time for another update about my progress for the Mochimochi show at gallery hanahou this October!
The messy foam mountain that I was carving up a couple of weeks ago has taken shape with a knitted covering and some shiny eyeballs! It just took a couple of days and many “fittings” to finish this guy up.
(I was pretty exhausted by the time I was sewing the lining of the mouth/tunnel in place.)
The things I’m making for this installation really range from jumbo size to teeny-tiny. I spent a day recently just knitting up a herd of small rats.
I admit that when I step back from the end of a day’s work, and I see that my accomplishment for the day was 20 miniature rats, or a section of sidewalk, or half of a hill, sometimes I question what I’m doing with my life right now. But I usually find myself quickly dismissing that question, and thinking to myself that I am so lucky to be able to immerse myself in this insane project for a few months, with not many obligations outside of making the knitted weirdness that finds its way into my head.
The tiny rats will, of course, eventually inhabit a knitted city, which is similar in design to the Shyscrapers in Knitting Mochimochi, except a bit bigger.
I kind of wish these guys could have a permanent place on my desk, always looking at me like they suspect I’m an idiot.
There is still sooo much more to knit in the next month or so, and I’m anxiously awaiting the next shipment of yarn from the awesome people at Cascade, who are generously providing the yarn for this project!
Aside from all the knitting I have left to do (including a rainbow, a desert, and a garbage dump), in the next week I also have to create a show image, write up a show description, and decide on a show title!
(And yes, my right pinkie finger is starting to intermittently go numb.)
UK magazine Knit Today just published a really nice feature about the Tiny Perching Pigeon Party that I did with Stitch London in June. Check it out in the September issue!
It brought back memories of a fantastic trip. A big thank-you to Marie Parry for this!
(OK, so they’re really pretty giant ants….)
Experts say that when we’re not looking, certain colonies will break out into a conga line.
Aren’t ants fascinating? I’ve had ants on the brain lately, enough so that I’m thinking about reading this book.
Larka_Luna was the first person to suggest knitted ants in the comments, so she gets a free pattern!
I have new glasses! I wear glasses pretty much every day, and I buy new ones infrequently, so it’s a big deal. I think the style of the dark blue frames is somewhere between librarian and superheroine.
Since my camera is also in the picture, I thought I’d mention that I LOVE this camera. It’s a Canon PowerShot Elph that I’ve used for everything over the past few years. I takes most of my blog pics, it goes with me on vacation, and I even used it to take all of the technique photos in Knitting Mochimochi. I got a more professional SLR camera earlier this year, but this point-and-shoot is still my go-to camera for most things.
I just shipped off this one-of-a-kind knitted toy-sculpture for Plush You! LA, which is coming up in just a couple weeks at Munky King!
I have a couple of less violent “practical jokes” for trees in mind (leaf blowers, etc!) that I might make later on when I find some time.
If you’re in the LA area, you should definitely go to the opening of Plush You! LA on August 26th. You’ll see lots of amazing and crazy plush toys made by all different kinds of craft artists.
Plush You
8.26.10 – 9.19.10
Opening Reception: Thurs, August 26th 7-10pm
Munky King Melrose