I am told that the Knit Picks Podcast with my interview with Kelley Petkun is now up!
I had a great toy-knitting conversation with Kelley, who had some neat ideas of her own about what to do with Mochimochi toys. It was fun! (I’m not in the mood for cringing at my own voice this morning, so I’m not going to listen to it myself just yet.)
Schmancy, the plush and vinyl toy store in Seattle, has been doing an ongoing series of “Schmancy Exclusives,” limited-edition plush toys made by some very awesome plush artists that are available only at Schmancy. The exclusives have been rolling out for over a year now, and each one is great!
The two most recent exclusives are adorable plushes from Cotton Monster and Softlife.
You can find them all in the Schmancy online shop. (And a few of my Baldees are still available there too!)
I’ve been obsessively checking out all the Knitting Mochimochi creatures that are popping up on Ravelry every day since the book was released—there are so many fantastic ones already!
One of my favorites is this adorably plump Confused Moose made by Alice of Kathryn Ivy.
It’s amazing how the size and placement of the features can give a toy such a different personality—to me, this guy looks like the “Muppet Babies” version of the original. And the Malabrigo yarn that Alice used is gorgeous! Somehow I’ve never used Malabrigo myself, but now I really want to give it a try now.
If you’ve made a toy from Knitting Mochimochi or any of my other patterns, be sure to add your photo to the Mochimochi Friends group on Flickr! It will appear on the Mochimochi Land gallery page and it will also automatically be entered in the next Mochimochi Photo Contest.
Limbo is a new game for the Xbox 360 that I am eager to play when I find some spare time. Just look at this beautifully moody screenshot:
John just reviewed the game for Eurogamer, so I got some glimpses of him playing it a few days ago. I was happy to hear from him that the game lives up to its prettiness.
Looks like it is officially released tomorrow!
A few months ago I hinted that I was working on a big project for later this year. “Later this year” is quickly approaching, so it’s time to start saying more about it!
This October I’m going to have my first solo show at gallery hanahou in New York. A Mochimochi Land show is something I’ve entertained some vague thoughts about for a long time, so it’s like a dream that I hardly let myself dream come true. I’m incredibly thankful to Koko, the gallery curator and my boss, for believing enough in my work to let me have a show!
I thought for a long time about what a Mochimochi Land show would look like, and the idea that got me the most excited was a knitted installation, something big that would incorporate lots of little elements for maximum fun and silliness. Movement is something I’ve always been interested in incorporating into my knitting, so I had the idea to create the entire thing around a running model train.
I talked to the nice people at Cascade about my project, and they were generous enough to help out with the yarn for the entire thing. So I got started a few months back on making the ground out of various green shades of Cascade 128. I never knit anything bigger than an average-size toy, and this felt like making the biggest, heaviest blanket ever!
(By the way, I am wearing shorts under all that yarn.)
As for the train, dad was just the person to ask about it—he happens to have a friend with a model train business! Ludwig at The Last Train Stop set me up with a model train from the 1950s that he thought would work best for my project.
We set it up at my parents’ house and got it to run.
In the end the train will have a knitted covering and will be throughly anthropomorphic, of course.
After several months of knitting, I’m almost finished with the ground, and it seems to be the right size for a figure-eight course. Soupy recently inspected it and granted approval.
Over the next two months I’ll be working on aaalll of the stuff and creatures that will populate the landscape—I have a lot of work ahead of me, but I think it’s going to be a ton of fun. I plan to post periodic updates about it all until the show opens on October 7th!
He’s very exclusive with his friendships. He’ll only hang out with you if you’re lasso-able.
I am in love with this necklace that my friend Audrey custom made for me.
I just said “make me a necklace,” and she came back with about seven sketches for me to choose from. She is awesome! The finished piece is way cooler than I even expected, and I’ve been wearing it constantly for the past month or so.
Audrey has a few other pieces in her Etsy shop, Shock and Awe Metalwerx. My favorite of her current listings are these carved wood earrings, which I would probably be wearing right now if I my ears were pierced.
If you’re in the NYC area and could use an in-person session on toy knitting, I will be teaching a class at the Lion Brand Yarn Studio from 2 to 5 pm on Sunday, August 29th!
In the class, we’ll use my Baby Gators pattern from Knitting Mochimochi to learn basic toy knitting techniques like using double-pointed needles to knit in the round, stuffing, and seaming.
[photo by Brandi Simons]
By the end of the 3-hour class, you will have finished your own Baby Gator or will be well on your way to finishing one at home!
I recommend this class for beginning to intermediate knitters who know some basic stitches and who may or may not have experience with knitting in the round.
For more information and to sign up, see the class schedule at the Lion Brand Yarn Studio website.
And don’t forget that I’ll also be at the Lion Brand Studio on July 27th for a book signing!