Author: Anna

Tiny Tree

Posted on by Anna

Update: Congrats to our caption contest winners! Also, the tiny tree pattern is now available!

tinytree

If you’ve noticed a theme to this week of caption contests, you might have guessed that a tiny owl, a tiny fox, and a tiny hedgehog could use a tiny tree for a friend. You would be right!

Hurry up and give us your best tiny tree caption, because we’ll announce all of the caption contest winners later this afternoon, in conjunction with the release of the Tiny Woodland pattern collection. Keep it to one caption per person in the comments, please, then check back later for the winners and the patterns!

Tiny Hedgehog

Posted on by Anna

Update: Congrats to our caption contest winners! Also, the tiny hedgehog pattern is now available as a PDF download and as a kit!

tinyhedgehog

It’s day three of our week of caption contests, and that means we’re just one day away from new tiny patterns!

Today this tiny hedgehog needs a caption, one that sums up what it means to be a tiny hedgehog in a way that is both adorable and profound. Or you can win us over with anything that rhymes with “hedgehog.”

Our favorite hedgehog caption (along with our favorite owl and fox captions) will be announced tomorrow, and the author will receive the new patterns for free!

As always, please keep your captions to one per person per post.

Tiny Fox

Posted on by Anna

Update: Congrats to our caption contest winners! Also, the tiny fox pattern is now available as a PDF download and as a kit!

tinyfox

The new tiny pattern collection is now just two days away! Thank you for all the tiny owl captions yesterday—we got so many more than I had expected.

Today I challenge you to caption the next creature in the collection, a tiny fox! Like with yesterday’s caption, John and I will choose a winner on Thursday, and that person will receive a free copy of the new patterns. (And again, please keep your captions to one per person per post.)

Tiny Owl

Posted on by Anna

Update: Congrats to our caption contest winners! Also, the tiny owl pattern is now available as a PDF download and as a kit!

tinyowl

School’s back in, the air is getting crisp, and new seasonally-appropriate tiny patterns are coming this week!

We’re also long overdue for a caption contest, so let’s fix that right now: Caption this tiny owl with your cutest owl pun, and the winner (to be announced Thursday) will receive the new pattern collection. We’ll have a new caption contest going every day this week, so be sure to check back for more chances to win! (Please keep your captions to one per person per post.)

Australian Homespun Magazine

Posted on by Anna

I’m a little out of the loop when it comes to craft magazines (first I have to get caught up on my New Yorker subscription—ha), but an issue of Homespun magazine from Australia arrived in the mail this week, and I just have to share.

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With gorgeous design and paper stock (plus a generous page count), this magazine is really a delight to peruse. It’s in my hands because they were nice enough to include some of my tiny knits in a feature on miniature crafting! (And nice enough to send a hard copy instead of a PDF, which I appreciate.)

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I’m honored to have my projects shown alongside some truly remarkable tiny things—yay mini needle-felted Ewok!—but mainly I’m just excited to come across such a cool magazine. Just look at this intro to a project for a felt bag.

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I love the dramatic black background and the use of space here. Plus illustrations! It feels like to editorial team really cares about bringing their readers something special.

So, those of you who are both crafters and design snobs, try to get your hands on Homespun!

Biggest Twig Update

Posted on by Anna

Back in June I started work on what would be the biggest twig to date in the Wooly Woods, my ongoing art project that explores the more forested regions of Mochimochi Land.

Here’s what it looked like after a few days’ work.

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And here is the fully wrapped big twig, two months later!

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Also, here is what I spent those two months looking like, from the twig’s perspective.

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Hunched over in concentration is not the most flattering angle for me, as it turns out.

The twiggins who will live in this piece of the Wooly Woods are underway as well.

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And now comes the fun part: playing around with the pieces to find the right positions for the creatures and inventing the trouble that they’re getting into, which will include more characters and woodsy elements.

The plan is for this piece and others from my show last year to be on display at Vogue Knitting LIVE in Chicago in October—which I guess is next month!—so I’m feeling good about the progress for that. If you’re thinking of attending, the event is open for registration (and I’ll also be teaching some classes there).

Last Chance for Squee-tastic Savings!

Posted on by Anna

summerofsquee14_lastchance

Just a reminder that this weekend is your last chance to nab all mochi-making goodies at a discount! Through Sunday, enter the code SUMMEROFSQUEE in your shopping cart to get 15% all books, 20% off all kits, and 20% of every single PDF pattern in the Mochimochi Shop. (And all physical orders still come with a tiny sumo button!)

Enjoy your last weekend of summer, everybody! (I’ll be breathing crisp New Hampshire air and stuffing my face with kettle corn at the Hopkinton Sate Fair.)

Putting the Fun in Fun Fur

Posted on by Anna

One thing I miss about living in NYC is having the Lion Brand Yarn Studio just a subway ride away. I went there for all my fun fur needs—which admittedly weren’t frequent needs, but I’ve found that when I get the fun fur bug, I want it NOW! (OK, that goes for any kind of yarn that I decide to use, but still.)

So I have at least a week to wait before my novelty yarn arrives in the mail, but in the meantime I dug out what I could find in my stash and was soon reminded why fun fur is so fun.

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This creature has so much personality already, thanks to Romance, the softer, more feathery alternative to fun fur that Lion Brand makes. I am so in love with this stuff! I held it together with worsted-weight yarn and used size 8 US needles (just a tip, in case some of you would like to incorporate fur into a toy, which is something you can do with pretty much any non-tiny toy).

I’m thinking that with different colors, a different shape, and minimal (non fur) appendages, this guy could be really cute and spooky and cool.

And if you live in NYC, please stop by the studio and say hi to everyone!