Author: Anna

Sept 17th Talk and Book Signing at Lion Brand Yarn Studio, NYC

Posted on by Anna

I get to go to NYC next week! I’m always excited to visit the last place I called home, and this time the occasion is also exciting—a talk and book signing at the Lion Brand Yarn Studio!

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If you’re in the NYC area, please join me next Thursday, September 17th, at 6pm, when I’ll discuss the adventure that was the making of Adventures in Mochimochi Land with a slideshow talk. The studio always does other little giveaways in conjunction with their talks, so it’ll be a fun evening. RSVP here!

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Maybe I’ll also bring a few gnomes with me to leave in the city while I’m there for a couple of days. If you see a gnome roaming around the city, please give him or her a nice home!

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It’s Mystery Kit Time Again!

Posted on by Anna

Put on your Sherlock hats, it’s time again for mystery kits!

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These are three all new tiny designs that may not return again for a while. And through September 30th you can get them for free! Here’s how:

• Order 2 kits or books (or one of each) from the Mochimochi Shop, and you’ll receive one randomly selected mystery kit with your order. (No need to add the kit to your cart!)

• Order 4 kits or books (or some combination thereof), and you’ll receive TWO mystery kits.

• Order 6 kits/books, and all will be revealed!

Like all tiny mochi kits, these come with a pattern and enough yarn (Cascade Heritage, a wool/nylon blend) and stuffing to make 2 or 3 itty-bitty creatures. You’ll need a set of size 1 double-pointed needles (which you can also now purchase from the Mochimochi Shop).

Would you like a hint? Well, we’ve got a human-like creature, a machine-like creature, and a beast-like creature in the mix this time. We’d also love your help keeping the mystery fun by not discussing the kits you receive online until October.

You know you love a good mystery!

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Back Page Contest Winner

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It was very hard to choose a winner of our Back Page Contest—so many of you found clever ways to use the 2-dimensional landscape page from Adventures in Mochimochi Land. (I knew you guys would come through big time!)

So John and I had a big debate about it last night, and we finally settled on…

Gummy Bear Photo Bomb by Tara!

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We loved the way that this image plays with the idea of a photo itself, and it has so much energy and humor.

Congratulations, Tara! You win this awesome collection of books from Potter Craft and Potter Style.

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I’ll be contacting you via Flickr for your mailing address.

Of course, we were smitten with lots of other photo entries, so here are some highly deserved honorable mentions.

One way to get a kite out of a tree by KnitWit685

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Travel Agent Squidy by Michelle

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The Photo Shoot by juleenbean

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Photographer Eddie by Salla Ahola

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(We liked the caption to this one: Nature photography proved to be too challenging for Eddie. The birds were just flying around and posing behind his back.

Big thanks again to everyone who entered this contest. We’ll have our big annual photo + video contest coming up in a couple of months (with even more awesome crafty prizes), so please stay tuned for that!

Playing with Clay

Posted on by Anna

Last year I blogged about trying wheel pottery for the first time in a class I was taking at the Lillstreet Arts Center in Chicago. It was very eye-opening to be a beginner at something again! I’ve got a small collection of ugly vessels around my apartment now, which have proved to be great for yogurt and also cat food (for the cats, not for me.)

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I’ve since moved on the handbuilding, which is definitely more my speed. After a day of typing and knitting, it feels so nice to get my hands into some clay and just push things around! I attempted a few slab cups and coil bowls early on, but I guess you can’t keep me from making creatures for too long, because when I started giving things eyes the ideas came much more quickly.

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This time I’m working with porcelain, not because I’m hoping to create anything fine, but because I figured it gave me the most options for surfaces, like starting with a blank canvas. But I still haven’t figured out what I like in terms of surfaces, so that’s why none of these guys are finished yet.

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I’m thinking these last guys could be nice all in white, and then making some out of different colors of clay to add to the mix could be neat too…

So I’m still really trying to figure out what I’m doing, but sometimes that’s a good feeling. If I ever get around to finishing something, I’ll share it here.

So that’s what I’m getting up to lately when I’m not knitting!

Reminder: Back Page Contest Deadline is August 31

Posted on by Anna

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These friendly Ann Arbor elephants by maymansara are here to remind you the entries to the Back Page Contest are due next Monday, August 31st. That’s plenty of time to put together a fun photo using the back page landscape in Adventures in Mochimochi Land. (And if you can’t get a copy of the book in time, you can download and print it out and use free patterns from the book for your entry!)

The winner will get a sweet collection of books from Potter Craft and Potter Style, including the awesome Adventure Time Crafts, which I reviewed earlier this year.

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And just between you and me, we haven’t had many entries so far, so your chances are great if you enter this week! See full contest details.

We’re Returning to VK LIVE Chicago

Posted on by Anna

Vogue Knitting LIVE is coming up again in Chicago, and Mochimochi Land will be there once again!

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This time you’ll be able to visit Mochimochi Land itself in classic landscape form. Different every time it unfurls, it will be updated with new characters getting up to all kinds of mochi mischief. And if you have a tiny mochi that you’d like to contribute to live forever in Mochimochi Land, you’re welcome to do so!

You’ll be able to find it all weekend in the art gallery of the marketplace, where I’ll also be with books and kits (which will include secret new designs, all at a special event price).

Plus! There will be another tiny mochi scavenger hunt in the marketplace on Sunday, this time for…

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Tiny hotdogs! Because Chicago hearts hotdogs hard. Finding a tiny hotdog will win you either a copy of my new book or one of these tiny kits.

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Plus! I’ll be giving a lecture on Sunday at 10:30am on the basics of toy knitting and designing. There is a fee to attend, or it also comes free with one of the packages available—check out the VK LIVE website for more info. (Early Bird pricing is still available as of now!)

Back Page Download from Adventures in Mochimochi Land

Posted on by Anna

A little update about the back page contest we’ve got going—it occurred to me that even though Adventures in Mochimochi Land is available from lots of places online plus (I hope!) many libraries, it’s possible that some people might have trouble getting their hands on a copy of the book in time to enter the contest. I want everyone everywhere to be able to participate, so I’ve uploaded a printable version of the back page—just click that highlighted text (or the image below) to download.

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As for patterns, you are welcome to use the free bonus patterns from the book that I’ve shared here on the blog: Chocolate Chip Cookies, Tiny Nosey Fish, Sand Pennies, and Carnie Zebra. You can combine these with other free patterns here on the blog (find a list of them in the sidebar) to make all kinds of scenes against the backdrop!

The deadline for entries is August 31st—see full contest details.