This is a free and easy pattern for everyone to enjoy. Please check out the Mochimochi Land Shop for more patterns that you’ll love!
Who doesn’t need a roll of knitted toilet paper? Great as a bathroom gag, an unconventional scarf, or the perfect Halloween costume: a toilet-papered tree! Continue reading “Free Pattern: Toilet Paper”
You’ve probably imagined what it would be like to be stuck on a deserted island. But what if you were the deserted island?
Diameter is 8″, height is 7.5″.
My friend Makiko Sasanuma, as I mentioned before, is the amazing photographer who took excellent shots of my Woodins for Knitty. Her product photography is obviously fantastic, but her personal work is what really blows me away—she works with light and natural elements to create images that make you look at the world from a completely different perspective.
Makiko shared some images from one of her projects with me today.
The project, “lost in gaze,” is a series of photographs that Makiko took of the space between two frosted glass panels. You can see just the faintest hint of what is on the other side of the glass; it’s this momentary act of seeing that she wanted to capture with these images.
When Makiko exhibited these photographs, she tried to recreate the atmosphere in which they were originally taken by covering the space’s glass windows with scrim and leaving a gap to see through.
I absolutely love the simple (but not simple) beauty and depth of this work. You can see more of Makiko’s photographs at her Flickr page.
This is my first amigurumi ever:
I call him Little Give Up.
He was originally supposed to be an owl from this book,
… but we never made it that far together. I think I’m having issues with my crochet hook and/or yarn choice—I’m using wool yarn that’s a bit grabby, and I kept switching to smaller and smaller hooks just so that I could fit the silly plastic things through the yarn, and now the whole thing is so tight that it was a struggle just to squeeze the plastic eyes in.
So, I’m ready for any advice any of you amigurumi pros might have. My specific questions might be:
1. Is it generally easier to work with a metal hook, as opposed to the plastic ones? (Any particular recommendations?)
2. Is it generally easier to work with an acrylic yarn, instead of wool?
And, even more generally,
3. What do you like about amigurumi, as opposed to knitted toys? (I promise you won’t hurt my knitterly-feelings!)
Thank you in advance for your help!
Update 10/7/07: I just received the lovliest kit of metal crochet needles from Rebecca, so I am now armed and dangerous! Thank you Rebecca!!!
That’s right, it’s time for the first-ever contest in Mochimochi Land!
I’m looking for the cutest, funniest, most original photos featuring toys made from Mochimochi Land patterns. There will probably be several winners, but the grand prize will be a box full of cute and unusual goodies from Japan: craft books and supplies, strange and funny toys, stationery, and more!
The winner(s) will be chosen from photos uploaded to the Mochimochi Friends group on Flickr. All photos that are already uploaded are already entered to win! But I’m hoping to get a whole lot more entries.
Here are the guidelines:
Eligibility
To be eligible, your photo must contain at least one toy made from a Mochimochi Land pattern. This can either be a pattern from the Mochimochi Shop, or one of the free patterns on the Mochimochi Blog. The pattern may be modified, but not beyond recognition from the original pattern.
How to enter
Simply upload your photo(s) to the Mochimochi Friends Flickr group. If you don’t have a Flickr account, it is free and easy to register (though I would recommend signing up as soon as possible, because it takes a little time for your account to be approved for sharing photos in a group). You can upload as many photos as you want, but please try to be reasonable!
Deadline
The last day to enter the contest is November 30th. I’ll be announcing the winner(s) shortly thereafter. Before I announce to everyone, I will contact the winner(s) for their home address for shipping.
As I mentioned, all of the photos that are already in the group are already entered in the contest. And there are some great ones! Here are a few, to get you inspired:
An appetizing Sausage Dog by dknits
Two Bobs in love by knittygirlie
Ninjabun gloats over his first victim! by giolou
So get knitting and shooting! If you have any questions, you can leave comments to this post, or email me at info [at] mochimochiland [dot] com.
I can’t wait to see what everyone comes up with!
Update 10/2/07: We now have a button for the contest (see the top right side of the screen). Feel free to swipe it and help spread the word!
Update 10/7/07: As discussed in the comments to this post, everyone will be able to vote for their favorite photo once finalists have been selected. Make sure to check back for voting in early December!
I recently rented the 1949 movie Adam’s Rib, starring Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn. I expected a classic romantic comedy, from a time when they knew how to make ’em. Instead, it was, well, truly bizarre.
The basic plot: Tracy and Hepburn are a married couple, and both are lawyers. They end up on opposite sides of a murder trial, with Hepburn defending a wife who shot her cheating husband to death, and Tracy trying to prosecute. Sounds like a recipe for a great movie, right?
Not right. First, the Tracy-Hepburn duo had no chemistry—in fact, their complete lack of chemistry almost seemed intentional, that’s how bad it was. I think the idea was that because they’re both tough, fast-talking lawyers, they show their affection toward each other by acting rude and talking really fast. Mixed in with the charmless hostility were also a lot of massages and crying jags, which just served to make everything more awkward.
Then there was the annoying neighbor. An obviously gay man to anyone alive today, the viewer in 1949 was supposed to believe that he is madly and completely openly in love with Hepburn’s character. He repeatedly professes his love for her in front of her husband, and at one point, even (very gayly) performs a love song that he wrote for her in their living room. I could sort of buy that he’s supposed to be a comical character, until he tries to rape Hepburn at the end of the movie.
The trial at the center of the plot was, of course, riveting in its utter lack of sense from either the prosecution or defense side. At one point, Hepburn calls a female weightlifting champion as a witness, and proceeds to instruct the woman to lift Tracy up in the air, in an attempt to prove that women can be just as strong as men. Which is to say, her client should get a fair trial.
As I hinted at above, things take a turn for the even weirder at the end of the movie. I won’t say anything more about it, except that it involves an edible gun.
Netflix asked me to rate this movie after I returned it, but I wouldn’t even know where to start. Its strangeness is near cult movie levels, so I encourage you to rent it if you’re into that kind of thing.
A sneaky bunny just hopped his way into Mochimochi Land—it’s Ninjabun, with his two carrot friends and a knitted garden for them all to hide in!
This pattern promises minutes of interactive fun. Just ask super pattern tester Joan, who uncovered another covert operation in her own yard:
Thank you for another fabulous test, Joan!
Also, I have to thank my wonderful husband John for ANIMATING Ninjabun in the Mochimochi Shop! (How cool is that??)
Update 9/27/07: Yay—Natalie posted about Ninjabun on the Craft blog! Thanks, Nat!
I am very excited to have just joined the online knitting community that is Ravelry! I kind of feel like the last person ever to receive my invite, but it’s fun to see how much has been going on there already, and it’s awesome to find some Mochimochi Land patterns there as well. (Including several pics of just-made Woodins!)
These little guys were made by Elin.
I’m currently asking the Ravelry people to make my patterns page accessible from my profile (so that I can add photos, new patterns as they become available, etc), so I’m holding off on uploading any projects for now. But I’m eager to see who has been raveling and what they’ve been making, so I hope those of you who have accounts will befriend me! My user name is Mochimochiland.