Author: Anna

Deck the Walruses Pattern FREE with Purchase through Jan 1!

Posted on by Anna

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Our 2014 holiday pattern is here! With Deck the Walruses, you can knit up a wooly wally and a wardrobe of hats for him in an afternoon. Perfect for quick gifts and holiday decor!

The pattern automatically comes FREE with any purchase of $5 or more from the Mochimochi Shop through January 1st! A link to download the pattern will be emailed to you within 24 hours of your purchase. (You don’t have to add it to your cart.)

This is a really simple project: a spherical shape for the body, with a little embellishment on the face, and the tail and front flippers knit as separate pieces and attached.

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I hope you all enjoy!

Tired Turkey

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It’s become a tradition for me to post a picture of one of my cats looking vaguely turkey-like on Thanksgiving Day. I think we can all relate to this tuckered-out turkey!

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Today I am giving thanks for an awesome husband and two adorable cats, for my larger family and friends, for my assistant Maureen, for art and music and creative encounters, and for getting to do what I love for a job. And anyone who happens to be reading this post, thank YOU for being here and sharing Mochimochi Land with me.

Stay safe this weekend, don’t get into any Black Friday fights, remember to submit your photo contest entries by Monday, and also check back on Monday for the reveal of our 2014 holiday pattern!

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Win 10 Tiny Mochi Kits

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I have some good news and some bad news. The bad news is that we’ve received a total of two video entries so far in the Mochimochi Photo (and video) Contest. I guess that’s what I get for putting a category in parentheses! The good news is that both entries are great and I would love for either of them to win. Also good news: your chances for winning will be pretty great if you make a video entry of your own by Monday. And what would you win? Here’s what:

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Ten best-selling tiny mochi kits will go to the winner of our video category! (The winner may choose ten different kits if she or he likes.)

If you’re unsure about what to do for this new category, there are so many possibilities: stop-motion animation, puppetry, and live-action are all acceptable—as long as your video contains at least one toy made from a Mochimochi pattern, you’re good to go. The length of your video can be really short (just a few seconds) or up to around 5 minutes long.

The deadline is December 1st, so get videoing! See full contest details.

The Half-Off Holiday

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What’s sadder than this small Thanksgiving display at Michaels, with everything 50% off way before Thanksgiving has even arrived?

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Maybe only the other side of this display.

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Browner, messier, and even more half off.

I first noticed Michaels’ sad Thanksgiving display before Halloween, when it was also discounted. (It may have been 40% off then, but I can’t remember.) Clearly Thanksgiving is less fun for retailers than the other major holidays, and that’s one more reason to like this holiday. Brown and orange and yellow just haven’t been cool in a mainstream way for a few decades, so if you want a Thanksgiving-themed sweatshirt or an elaborate fall centerpiece, you’re going to have to actually get creative.

I’ll admit that I’m not working on any Thanksgiving projects this year—I’m just looking forward to a few days with my extended family—but this has me wondering how many of you are out there making any Thanksgiving crafts this year. Can we have a show of hand turkeys?

Win Kitschy Kits and Vintage Patterns from Bonney’s Stash

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A bit more than a week is left to enter the Mochimochi Photo and Video Contest! I’ve already showed you the beautiful lotion bars from Milk+Honey and the rainbow of Palette yarn from Knit Picks that are in store for our winners, and now to reveal the prizes that come from my mother-in-law’s stash!

Bonney’s stash, if you aren’t familiar, is the undisputed titleholder of World’s Biggest Yarn Stash. I first introduced it to the world here on this blog in 2007, and in 2011 I did a follow-up interview with Bonney about her stash. (That means it’s about time to do another official check-in on the stash in 2015!) More than just yarn, Bonney’s stash includes kits, tools, weird toys she found on Ebay, and plenty of other randomnesses. So I didn’t know what was going to come when I asked Bonney if she would donate something from her stash for this year’s photo contest prizes. It turns out that Bonney was characteristically generous, and she picked some real gems for us!

Our first-place photo winner will receive these vintage patterns straight out of the mid-20th Century and Bonney’s stash!

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PLUS vintage kits, including a valuable Howdy Doody slipper kit (soles included)! You know you want that kit.

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PLUS this awesome bag that has creepy anthropomorphic rabbits playing croquet on it.

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Our second-place photo winner will also get vintage patterns and kits (including a valuable Howdy Doody mitten kit!), and creepy rabbit bag.

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And our third-place photo winner will receive a valuable Howdy Doody mitten kit and creepy rabbit bag too!

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I can tell already it’s going to be a great weekend for working on entries. And if you’re wondering about the prize for the video portion of our contest, I’m going to announce it next week! See full contest details.

By the way, if you’re intrigued by Bonney and want to get to know here a little better, check out Mom on Pop, the pop-culture podcast that she does with my husband, John. It’s my favorite thing in the world right now.

Tiny Woodland Buttons are Here

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I’m so smitten with the Tiny Woodland creatures that I debuted earlier in the fall that I just had to get pin-back buttons made!

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These guys are available as a pack of 4 for $5 in the Mochimochi Shop.

As it so happens, at the same time that I was contemplating having these buttons made by Busy Beaver Button Co., I got an email from them asking if I’d be interviewed on their blog. And that interview is now up!

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You might want to poke around a bit on their blog if you have a moment—you’ll be surprised at how many cool buttons you see there!

Thanks to Abbey and Busy Beaver Button Co. for the interview!

Adventure Time Crafts Winner

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It’s time to choose a winner for our giveaway of Adventure Time Crafts: Flippin’ Adorable Stuff to Make from the Land of Ooo by Chelsea Bloxom!

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Last week I asked you all to leave a comment telling us your most adventurous crafting story, and I was delighted that 80 of you chimed in with stories of all kinds of challenging crafts and “make it work” moments! I’m just about to choose a winner, but first let’s look at one more cool spread from the book.

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How cute is that Peppermint Butler Pillow?!? So if you entered the giveaway and you don’t win, maybe you’re convinced that you need to buy the book anyway!

Now for our winner—Random.org will choose for us, and it chooses…

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Commenter number 11, Dibrotica Virgifera!

It’s not particularly adventurous but, when I learned how to crochet it was because my grandma got me Twinkie Chan’s book for Christmas, and I was already a knitter, but had never picked up a crochet hook. My first project was the cupcake scarf.
My boyfriend recently learned how to knit (from me :3 ) and his first big project was a Game of Thrones-inspired double-knit scarf. I think that makes him pretty badass.

Anybody who likes the designs of Twinkie Chan should enjoy Adventure Time Crafts, and vice versa, so I’m glad that we have a winner who will clearly appreciate this book!

Thanks to everyone who participated in the giveaway! And if crafty prizes get you excited, check out the details for the Mochimochi Photo Contest!