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!)
Good news! I’m in the middle of working on new designs for a future book! Not Huge & Huggable Mochimochi, which is coming out October 15th, but something even newer than that. It’s very exciting! The bad news is that while I’m putting most of my creative energy into this project, I can’t really share any of it here, or else I’d have to kill you all.
Instead, I thought it would be fun to share a different knitting project that’s just in its infancy, especially because it’s a challenging design that may take some time. It’s an arcade game!
(You can see that I’ve also had doughnuts on the mind.)
I’m so excited for this project—you’ve got the screen, all the surfaces of the cabinet, plus the joysticks and the coin slots. So much fun detail! And if I’m making an arcade game, it might as well be something specific, so I’m also brainstorming about what kind of game it could be. John suggested Super Mochi Sisters, which might be too awesome not to go with.
Right now I’m still in the sketching stage. but once I’m feeling a little more solid on the direction of this guy, I’ll get started with the knitting. I’ll probably begin with the screen, then I’ll build out the rest of the design based on that, and I’ll try to document my progress here as it comes along. So check back for updates!
Last weekend I got to do one of my absolute favorite things: bring a piece of Mochimochi Land out into the world!
The mochis are now at work and play in the window of the Robot Supply & Repair Shop in Ann Arbor, Michigan, which helps support the nonprofit writing center 826michigan. At first glance, it looks like a typical day in Mochimochi Land, but the robots are taking over in this scene!
This mochi mischief was made possible by the Ann Arbor District Library, who invited me to bring my knitted world to the city as part of their summer game. Ann Arborites should keep their eyes peeled for a few more mochi displays around town.
I also gave a talk at the downtown library on Sunday as part of my visit. I was so happy to have a great turnout to share my story with. The talk was videotaped, so I’ll post that when it’s available.
Big thank-yous to the Ann Arbor District Library, 826MI, and everyone who came to the talk on Sunday!
I have an unusual food problem right now. Actually, I’m using both the words “food” and “problem” very loosely: I have way too many marshmallows! But not the boring little white kind of marshmallows…
…the colorful magical marshmallows that come in the shapes of hearts and moons and stars! (Also known as assorted dehydrated marshmallow bits.) I suddenly have thousands of these little pieces of sugar and artificial coloring (2.2 lbs of them, to be more precise). They arrived in the mail recently, sent to me from my mother-in-law Bonney. (She’s kind of known for amassing lots of her favorite things.) No explanation, just marshmallows.
When I called Bonney to ask about her unusual gift, she reminded me of a story that I told her several years ago about how once when I was a kid I spent a couple of hours alone with a box of Lucky Charms and managed to consume every single marshmallow, leaving the “healthy” part of cereal largely uneaten. (Everyone likes hunting for treasure!) So it seems that Bonney found the marshmallows for sale in bulk at Cornerstone Country Market in Waterboro, Maine, and she thought it would make my day to have three bags of pure sugary joy all to myself. It was an exciting package to open for sure, but after munching on a handful, I remembered that I’m no longer 11 years old, and neither is my stomach.
So. Instead of giving them to a neighborhood kid (and making her or his Park Slope parents very unhappy), I’ve decided to have a Marshmallow Marathon Baking Challenge, hopefully with your help! Surely there are many possibilities for crazy fun baked goods and other desserts that these things can be used in, and I want YOUR ideas and recipes. So far the only idea I’ve come up with is rice crispy treats with marshmallows baked in, but that doesn’t seem especially innovative to me, because rice crispy treats already have marshmallow in them (albeit a pretty different kind of marshmallow), and also because I’d be making another marshmallow-and-cereal combo that is rather obvious.
I have a feeling that many of you are big into baking and cooking, so I would love to hear your ideas (or even full recipes) in the comments to this post! The sky is pretty much the limit, although I have a few things you should probably keep in mind:
– These marshmallows are softer than the crunchy, extra-dehydrated kind that come in Lucky Charms. But the size and flavor of them are the same.
– I’m a vegetarian, but not a vegan, so no meat (ew gross anyway), but eggs/milk/cheese are OK.
– I’m an average baker/cook, so I probably won’t attempt anything overly fancy or complicated, or that requires fancy/complicated equipment.
– I have edible projects in mind, but if you have a cool idea for a different kind of use for the marshmallows, please share that too!
I’d love to test out some suggestions and show you the results here on the blog!
I can’t tell you how many times people have asked me for a tiny cat or dog pattern, so I’m excited to finally be able to say YES! Now you can knit a mini menagerie that you’ll never have to clean up after (except for a few yarn scraps). These patterns are all seamless, 1 to 2-inch tall creatures that knit up fast with any weight of yarn. (I recommend fingering-weight yarn for the ideal mini size.)
The patterns are now available as a PDF download for $6 in the Mochimochi Shop.
This is what happens when a robot goes swimming right after eating three botdogs (robot hotdogs).
If he’s feeling better by this weekend, he’ll come with me to Ann Arbor to frolic with other mochi creatures in a big display! (I’ll post photos here too, of course.) And if you’re in the Ann Arbor area, I hope you’ll come to my talk at the the downtown library this Sunday (July 14th)—full details are at the Ann Arbor District Library website.
Did you hear that Disney is making short animations starring Mickey Mouse again? I haven’t seen a new Disney animation in years, but the three-and-a-half-minute Yodelberg (below), with its classic style and emphasis on physical comedy, is right up my alley.
You can see a couple more on the YouTube channel dedicated to the new Mickey shorts and making-of videos. I hope to see lots more Mickey from them!
