Here’s another video I’m loving this week: a short animation called Fear of Flying, made by Dublin-based Conor Finnegan. The animation is fantastic and the characters and sets are adorable!
I was just puzzling over how it was made, with its apparent combination of stop-motion and computer animation, when I found this little “making-of” clip.
Via The Fox is Black.
(The arcade game is coming along—I’ll have an update on that soon!)
Time for some creative inspiration! One of my favorite music makers, Dan Deacon, made this neat video last year in which a brief scene with props is recreated, telephone-style, by many teams who each had just watched the previous team’s scene once. It’s a crazy, messy creative experiment that I just can’t stop watching.
The music is great too! It’s from Dan Deacon’s 2012 album America.
Exciting news: We’re having out first-ever summer sale! Actually, it’s our first-ever sale, period!
Through August 31st, just use the code SUMMEROFSQUEE in your shopping cart, and you’ll get 15% off all books, 20% off all kits, and 20% off all PDF patterns.
Go nuts, because mochis never go out of style!
A couple weeks back I asked for ideas about what to make with 2 lbs of mini Lucky Charms-esque marshmallows, and I got some great suggestions in the comments. And now I’m reporting back with the first project!
I’m calling this S’mores Bars Party Style. I followed Joy the Baker’s recipe for S’mores Icebox Candy Bars, suggested by Suzanne, and I just substituted the colorful marshmallows for the standard mini white variety. (That’s what makes it “party style.”)
Note to self: Wax paper may not always be an OK substitute for parchment paper.
The results were interesting—not exactly delicious, but kind of addictive. I think this has less to do with marshmallows and everything to do with 3+ sticks of butter. If I hadn’t told our guests that these were supposed to be reminiscent of s’mores, I don’t think they would have gotten that. It actually could have used more marshmallows, although I felt like I used more than the recipe called for.
This might be ideal as a super-easy sleepover treat. It was also pretty great paired with gourmet ice cream. I’m calling it a moderate success.
Thank you to Suzanne for her suggestion! I’d love to find more to make with my marshmallows. What should I make next? Let’s make the next project a little more out there!
The weird and wonderful thing that is making me happy this week: a dramatic Western tale starring our own Flushie the Toilet, courtesy of The Privy Counsel, a blog about all things toilet.
Big Wayne, who was clearly lying about losing his gun, draws his own weapon in a flash.
“Mama said the pistol is the Devil’s right hand,” says a raspy-voiced gent in the company
of a beautiful blonde.
See the whole action-packed, delightfully postmodern story on The Privy Counsel!
I’ve just added some fun Mochimochi merch to the shop: rainbow gnome buttons and nature gnome postcards!
These 1″ pin-back buttons feature the tiny gnomes in hues of blue, pink, green, and yellow. Nab them for $5!
And our first-ever postcard set features four photos of tiny gnomes frolicking in the glorious outdoors, photographed by me in Brooklyn. Only $4 in the shop!
Both of these sets would make awesome decorations for yourself and your space, or nice little “just because” gifts for the cute addicts in your life. I had fun making them, and I hope some people will have fun using them!
We have a screen!
So in my last post about my arcade game design, I had a couple of sketches and a general idea about the shapes that would be involved. With any design featuring a screen (like Error and TV Guy), I always start out designing that part first, since it’s going to be the “face” of the character, and I can figure out the dimensions of everything else based on that.
As you can see, I made my intarsia color design on my computer. I use Illustrator for this, because its Live Paint Bucket feature lets you make a grid and then fill in colors really easily. But even when I make it on a computer first, sometimes I need to make adjustments after knitting. This was my first version of the screen:
It was’t tall enough the first time around. You might wonder why I didn’t just make a grid with more accurate stitch proportions on my computer—the reason is just that I’ve never bothered to make a “master” grid to start with, and that’s something I should probably do. Just because I’ve been designing for seven years doesn’t mean that I’m always organized and doing everything the most efficient way possible.
After finishing a screen that I’m happy with, it’s time to be a little more specific about figuring out the rough dimensions and stitch/row counts for the rest of the project. That means doing something that I actually don’t do that often: checking my gauge.
I tend to only do this when I’m designing something with more structure and strong angles, and not when I’m making an animal or other character with mostly round shapes. My gauge-checking is not so complex (just measuring how many stitches and rows per inch, then doing some multiplication), but it’s helpful as a guideline for how many stitches to cast on and how many rows to work on the base of the design. Another sketch follows, with more annotations.
At the same time, I’m still thinking about what this arcade’s game might be, and how that would affect the design. If I’m going to use more intarsia on the cabinet, I should at least have a general idea of what that will look like and where it will start. I hope to figure that out and get started on the rest of the piece soon. Stay tuned!
This tiny cat by modern_mary says back off from her yarn!
I find this photo really charming. Simple and sweet! (The pattern is in the new tiny pets collection, of course!)
This might be a great time to work on an entry for our big photo contest this fall! All photos of Mochimochi toys added to our Flickr group are automatically entered. See the guidelines and the winners of last years contest for some inspiration. (I’m already thinking about what the prizes will be!)