Author: Anna

A Fine Feathered Photo Contest

Posted on April 1, 2013May 3, 2013 by Anna

Update: The winners have been announced: see them here!

I’m thrilled to announce this year’s springtime photo contest, this time sponsored by Spud & Chloë!

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Springtime is for the birds: they’re hatching, they’re singing songs, they’re building nests. But the birds in Mochimochi Land do way more. For this Fine Feathered Photo Contest, we want to see what surprising things YOUR mochimochi birds are doing.

Choose one or more of these feathered mochis to knit: Tiny Chickens, Tiny Hatchlings, or Tiny Perching Pigeons.

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These itty-bity projects all knit up really quickly, so that allows lots time for them to get into all sorts of strange and funny situations: maybe your little birds are learning to fly an airplane, or are putting on a Broadway musical, or are relaxing in the most luxurious birdbath ever—let your imagination take flight! Show us what your little guys are doing with a single photo or a series of photos uploaded to the Mochimochi Friends group on Flickr with the photos tagged feathercontest13.

The top three winners will each receive a selection of soft and beautiful Spud & Chloë Fine yarn. It’s perfect for knitting all sorts of teeny-tiny mochis!

The deadline for entries is April 29th.

CONTEST DETAILS

Eligibility

Knitters from all countries are welcome to enter! To be eligible, your photo(s) must contain at least one Tiny Chicken, Tiny Hatchling, or Tiny Perching Pigeon made from the Mochimochi Land pattern. The pattern may be modified, but not beyond recognition from the original design.

How to enter

Simply add your photo(s) to the Mochimochi Friends Flickr group, and tag them with feathercontest13. If you don’t have a Flickr account, it is free and easy to register (though we recommend signing up as soon as possible, because it takes a little time for your account to be approved for sharing photos in a group).

Your entry can be a single photo or a series of photos, but please limit the total number of photos to 6. (In the case of a series, please number the titles.) Photos entered in this contest will not be eligible for the 2013 Mochimochi Photo Contest this fall.

Judging

Winners will be picked by us at Mochimochi Land, but the Flickr pool is open to be seen by everyone. We will be focusing on creativity in this contest, and not just looking for pretty images.

Deadline

The last day to enter the contest is April 29, 2013. We’ll announce the winners shortly thereafter!

Prizes!

The top three winners each receive a selection of Fine yarn provided by Spud & Chloë: third place gets three skeins, second place gets five skeins, and first place gets ten skeins! Thank you Spud & Chloë!

Hare-stories

Posted on March 29, 2013March 29, 2013 by Anna

If you’ve been following this blog for a while, you’ll remember that we held a Tiny Bunny Photo Contest last year and got tons of creative entries. Our first-ever springtime photo contest was such a hit that we’re doing it again! It won’t be bunnies this time, but check back on Monday for the big announcement.

Because this is Easter weekend and we have tons of fabulous photos of tiny bunnies, I’m posting a few bun-tastic favorites from last year. I hope it gets everyone inspired for the new contest, too!

Plotting with my Minions by driveshesaid

CSI Mochimochi Land by Pixi Dragon

Easter Bunny construction crew by mama bird 73

Bunny Aww-ear-ness Day by The Happy Cupcake

Bunnypalooza by GuitarGuy12

Who knew bunnies could be construction workers and crime scene detectives? I can’t wait to see what happens in our next photo contest! By the way, the Tiny Baby Bunnies is a free pattern, if you need a last-minute Easter knit!

Have a happy Easter and Passover, everyone!

Exciting VK Live Seattle Updates

Posted on March 28, 2013March 28, 2013 by Anna

In just a few days, I’ll be headed off to Seattle with a posse of gnomes for Vogue Knitting Live!

There’s a lot going on next weekend, so I wanted to do a quick rundown for those who are attending or thinking of attending (you should!).

Friday 4/5 I’m teaching a Teeny-Tiny Toy Knitting class bright and early (8:30am). There are a few spots left, so it’s not too late to sign up and learn everything you need to know about knitting itty-bitty gnomes and all sorts of other creatures.

From 6-8pm come see the epic Mochimochi Land battle of Gnomes vs Snowmen in the art gallery, which will be located in or near the marketplace.

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Saturday 4/6 I’ll be in the art gallery all day with books and kits (including special new kits) and more. You can see the other artists who will wow you with their yarn and knitting-related creations on the VK Live website.

Sunday 4/7 Tiny Zombie Hunt! Ten tiny zombies (made by yours truly) will be hidden all around the marketplace. Find one to win a free copy of Super-Scary Mochimochi!

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Also at 11:30am I’ll be giving a slideshow talk about how Mochimochi Land came to be and who you will find in this weird squishy world. This is happening at the stage in the Exhibit Hall, along the back wall.

So if you’re in the Seattle area, I really hope to see you next weekend! It should be a blast!

Vogue Knitting Live Seattle
April 5-7
Meydenbauer Convention Center
11100 Northeast 6th Street
Bellevue, WA 98004

Let’s Get Cozy?

Posted on March 27, 2013March 27, 2013 by Anna

I would like us all to take a moment today to talk about cozies.

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They’ve been coming up in a lot of my recent conversations with knitters, and I’m surprised at how polarizing they seem to be. I’m not talking about tea cozies, which are their own special breed of lovely knitting weirdness.

(That’s the brilliant work of katielewth, who won an honorable mention in our 2011 photo contest for it.)

I’m talking about cozies for everything else, but especially drinks of one kind or another. My gut reaction is to resist this knitting project, maybe because I don’t think anyone has ever desired a cozy. I think of them as the fruitcakes of the knitting world—something everyone has given or received at some point, but never something to really get excited about.

But yesterday I was talking to Esther Betten, one of the owners of Argyle, my lovely local yarn store in Brooklyn, and I discovered that she is a huge cozy advocate. She made two of the three pictured at the top of the post (I digitally added the eyes to the guy on the right—just couldn’t resist), and she passionately related her journey of finding blue mason jars (and accompanying mason jar sip lids) and combining them with handmade cozies for a low-budget and, well, cozy gift. Not only does she give them away, but she also sips coffee out of her own cozied-up mason jar every day.

I can’t question Esther’s cozy enthusiasm, but it seemed out of the blue to me, and I’m wondering if cozies are more popular than I had thought. So I want to hear what YOU think!

Important questions:
1) Have you ever made a (non-tea) cozy?
2) Do you ever use a cozy?

Less important questions:
3) Can a mochi be a cozy?
4) What’s so wrong with mugs with handles?

I’m hoping for a lively debate in the comments, so please don’t hold back!

Something Huge is Coming this Fall

Posted on March 25, 2013 by Anna

It’s now on Amazon, so that makes it official: Huge & Huggable Mochimochi is coming this October!

My fourth book of patterns for knitted toys will be full of epic mochis with larger-than-life personalities to match. I want to leave most of the surprises for closer to the launch, but you can expect colossal creatures, giant vehicles, and blown-up everyday objects. Like my previous books, this one features fantastic photographs by Brandi Simons. And that gorgeous cover model? That’s my darling niece Nora!

The book is now available for pre-order from Amazon and Barnes & Noble, and starting October 15th it will be available everywhere in the US (including your LYS, I hope!), and I will also be shipping copies internationally from the Mochimochi Shop. October can’t come soon enough!

Winter Fun with Tiny Gnomes

Posted on March 22, 2013March 22, 2013 by Anna

I’m not sorry to see winter go this year (especially since it’s taking its time here in NYC), but there will always be special things about the season that make it a little bit worth the darkness and cold, as I am reminded by this delightful series of photos that Alaskan Knitter took of her small army of tiny (and not-so-tiny) gnomes.

Teeny gnomes engage giant gnomes in a snowball fight…

The little guys win this round!

But they’d better not get too cocky…

A quick but fun escape!

Here’s a peek behind the scenes.

I love it when someone makes an epic mochi story with a series of photos.

Speaking of which, I’m about to announce this year’s springtime photo contest! As you might remember from last year’s Tiny Bunny Contest, for the spring photo contest we like to have a more narrow focus of characters, and we encourage storytelling and sequential photos. And we have a great new sponsor this year that I can’t wait to announce. Check back for all the details the first week of April!

Monster Knitting Workshop in Berlin April 13

Posted on March 21, 2013March 29, 2013 by Anna

I you live in Berlin or are visiting for the Pictoplasma Conference next month, please join me on April 13th for a monster knitting workshop!

These guys are based on Pictoplasma’s Missing Link mascot. I met a captive one in person two years ago when I was at the conference!

The pattern and all the info on the workshop is now up on annahrachovec.com.

The Wooly Woods Coming to Berlin April 10-14

Posted on March 19, 2013March 21, 2013 by Anna

I’m thrilled to be returning to Berlin next month with a new show at smallspace in conjunction with the Pictoplasma Festival!

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Here’s the official description:

The Wooly Woods

Fiber artist Anna Hrachovec brings to life a candy-colored forest crawling with curious fauna. Continuing her study of the imaginary realm Mochimochi Land, Anna combines found wood with brightly-hued yarn to create miniature landscapes where snails, butterflies, and birds interact with an exploding population of native wood-dwelling mammals called twiggins. The tiny dramas that play out in the branches are inspired by the fortuitous bends and twists of the wood, leading viewers to notice the beauty in the smallest bits of nature.

The Wooly Woods
April 10-14
smallspace gallery
Brunnenstrasse 178-179
10119 Berlin
noon-8pm
Opening reception: Wednesday, April 10th, 7-9pm

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The concept for the show developed out what I saw in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy in NYC. The number of trees and branches that came down was astounding—in Prospect Park alone (my favorite place in Brooklyn), more than 300 trees came down and more than 1,000 large branches fell. The scene was sad and awe-inspiring in its scale, and still lingers nearly 5 months later.

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I was inspired by this natural destruction to create something playful and magical out of the waste.

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This has been an intense project, with 30 pieces ranging in size from 4 inches to 4 feet, and I can’t wait to share it with the people of Berlin and the Pictoplasma festival-goers.

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I will also be leading a monster-knitting workshop on April 13th!

Full details are on the Pictoplasma website.