Author: Anna

New Favorite Necklace

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I am in love with this necklace that my friend Audrey custom made for me.

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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.

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Toy Knitting Class at Lion Brand August 29

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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.

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[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!

Channel SOUPY

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Like many cats, Soupy is a cardboard box fan. We also like to think of him as the owner of a media empire, so we started cutting holes into boxes to make it look like he’s on TV.

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In his nightly show, he likes to espouse his latest cat conspiracy theories, most of which point to the toilet as the root of all evil. (The toilet is Soupy’s other obsession in addition to boxes.)

Release Party Wrap-up

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The Knitting Mochimochi release party on Sunday at Brooklyn General was so much fun! I didn’t know what to expect, since many people are out of town on July weekends, but I was pleasantly surprised by the steady stream of friends and new faces.

I got a little practice signing books, which is still kind of strange to me. It feels like a mixture of vandalism and middle-school yearbook signing. (“Stay sweet!”)

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The best part was seeing people’s in-person reactions to the toys in the book. They were mostly of the “cuuute” variety (with one or two “huh?”s thrown in for good measure), and Grouchy Couch and the Feet Eaters seemed to get the most attention.

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Thank you to Brooklyn General for hosting, and to everyone who turned out!

If you missed the party, next I will be at the Lion Brand Yarn Studio on July 27th (Tuesday) at 6 pm for a book signing. I can’t wait!

Two More Giveaways from CRAFT and Kathryn Ivy

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Knitting Mochimochi has now been out for just about two weeks, and I’ve been overwhelmed (in a very good way) with all the attention it’s been getting in knitting magazines and around the web! That will probably all quiet down pretty soon, but in the meantime, here are two more nice features, both of which involve giveaways of the book!

CRAFT has been a very big part of my life since I started knitting toys in 2006. Not only do I turn to their blog every day for crafty inspiration and amusement, but they have also been instrumental in my design work. They featured my knitted toys online way back in early 2007, when I first began blogging, and since then they’ve published three of my patterns in addition to regularly featuring my designs.

So now I am thrilled that Natalie at CRAFT has just reviewed Knitting Mochimochi on the CRAFT blog!

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My favorite line from the review:

This book is a perfect companion for the summer knitter as you could finish a cute project in no time (beach knitting!) and hand it off right away for a child or child-at-heart to enjoy.

Along with the review, Natalie asked me a few questions about writing Knitting Mochimochi—it was fun to share some thoughts about it with her. And CRAFT is giving away two copies of the book! To enter the giveaway, just leave a comment over on the review post on the CRAFT blog by noon PST this Wednesday.

Another two-book giveaway is also underway at Kathryn Ivy!

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If you’re not already a reader, Katheryn Ivy is the website of Alice and Grace Schnebly, sisters who share their knitting expertise through reviews of books and yarn and their own line of patterns. They also have both test knitted patterns for me, so they are extremely familiar with my designs. (Check out these gorgeous Pile-able Pups made by Grace!)

I was really happy to be interviewed for their blog, especially because they asked me such great questions, including “What is your personal style?” (For years I had been secretly wishing someone would ask me that question someday!)

They’re also giving away two copies of Knitting Mochimochi, one through their blog and one through Twitter—check out their post to find out how to enter. (The deadline is noon PST this Friday.)

Thank you to Natalie and CRAFT, and thank you Alice and Grace!

A Morning in Bampton

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June was such a whirlwind month, what with returning from the UK the day before the release of my book, and so I’m only now sorting through all the photos from my trip with my mom. It was a wonderful trip! I won’t bore you with all my photos of cathedrals in England and the beautiful Welsh coastline, but I do have one amusing story to share from our stay in Bampton, a charming little town near Oxford.

Bampton was neat—we didn’t know anything about it when we decided to stay there, but it turned out to have an incredibly old church, several friendly pubs, and many footpaths that cut through fields.

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My mom and I stayed in a very comfortable bed & breakfast called Wheelgate House.

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The morning after our first night’s stay there, I was woken up by a scratching noise coming from under my bed. At first I thought it was coming from the living room on the floor below (maybe someone was doing some work on the ceiling), but it persisted and it didn’t take long for me to be fully awake and standing on the opposite side of the room. Something was under the bed!

The scratching got louder, and after a few seconds, the bed skirt started to move. I freaked and jumped on the other bed with my mom. The scratching was loud enough that it would have had to be a very large mouse or other bigger-sized animal, like some kind of English version of an opossum.

Finally something emerged from under the bed, and it was… the cutest fluffy orange cat! It bolted for the door, which I had by this time opened. Mom and I breathed a sigh of relief, but then the bed skirt started to move again! And this time out came… an identical fluffy orange cat! It ran right out the door after its friend.

That was when we remembered hearing that the owner of the B&B had two cats that were supposed to stay outside in the garden. The poor things must have snuck into the house at some point and hid under the bed. Then we had had the door closed all night, without them making a peep. They were obviously not used to being inside with people.

It was a very memorable start to the day! The rest of our trip was great too, but not quite as hilarious.

Knitting Mochimochi Reviewed in Knitty

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I was thrilled to just discover a review of Knitting Mochimochi in the current issue of Knitty!

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In the review, Amy Singer says the book made her “squeal out loud.” Just the reaction I love!

Knitty has a very special place in my heart—Amy contacted me personally in 2007 when I was just starting out as a designer, then she published one of my very first patterns in the Fall issue of that year! Having a pattern published in Knitty gave me some much-needed confidence in my design work and also brought a ton of new readers to my blog. It was such a great experience, and I’m sure I’ll be submitting another design before long.

By the way, I’m loving a lot of the patterns in the new “First Fall” issue, especially Lanesplitter and Mad for Plaid!

Tiny Penguin

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Your supportive comments on my recent post about the Tiny series (along with my own hard-to-kick Tiny addiction) have convinced me to keep going with it!

I think many of us could use some cool imagery these days, so how about a Tiny Penguin?

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He’s still waiting to have a documentary made about him. Because every penguin should have 15 minutes of documentary fame.

Olivia was the first person to leave a comment suggesting that I knit a Tiny Penguin way back in July of last year, so she gets a free pattern! I was also inspired by the comment left by Fiera Firenze on the Plush You blog (where you can still leave a comment to win a copy of Knitting Mochimochi)—she suggested that I put a tiny penguin on a tiny iceberg. How about a Tiny Glacier instead?

tinypenguin_glacier