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Knit gnomes and alpaca with me on December 10th!

I’m returning to Virtual Knitting LIVE next month with some popular classes on December 10th! Come join me in knitting gnomes or alpaca… or both!

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Knit a Tiny Gnome
In this two-hour class, we’ll cover intermediate techniques used in my tiny gnome pattern: joining I-cord legs, knitting with 2, 3, and 4 double-pointed needles, switching colors, attaching I-cord arms, and embroidery tips. Your gnome can be clothed or gnaked—your choice!

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Short Rows in Toy Knitting: Tiny Alpaca

Learn to tackle more advanced knitted toys with wrap & turn short rows! We’ll discuss this technique as it applies to toys and get started on knitting a tiny alpaca that incorporates it. In addition to short rows, we’ll cover picking up stitches, I-cord limbs, and face embroidery. By the end of the class you’ll be on your way to finishing your first alpaca, probably with whole herd to follow!

Technique Requirements: Circular knitting

👉 See the Vogue Knitting LIVE website for more info and registration! (Classes are listed under my name, Anna Hrachovec.)

10th Anniversary of Gnomes vs Snowmen

Ten years ago today, the gnomes and snowmen of Mochimochi Land faced off in an epic battle. Snow heads rolled. Gnomes were squashed flat. Santa’s sleigh was commandeered for aerial snowball drops. It was not pretty, but it was pretty cute.

These events took place for a few weeks at the wonderful gallery hanahou (RIP!) in NYC in 2011, thanks to Koko Nakano and her team, but they live on in our memories. And in some photos!

Continue reading “10th Anniversary of Gnomes vs Snowmen”

Spooky Spooky Winners!

I hope everyone had a very happy Halloween! Ours was extra cute this year because we got to enjoy some very cool entries in our first-ever Spooky Spooky Contest! I had originally planned to select three winners, but picking three just wasn’t possible! So we ended up with four.

Without further ado, in no particular order, here are our SPOOKY SPOOKY WINNERS!

I love spooky things by Jennaferhay

How fun is this arrangement of assorted spooky characters!

Patterns: Candy Corn, Tiny Terrors, Tiny Fall patterns, and Tiny Ghost from Teeny-Tiny Mochimochi

That time of year when Mochimochi Land characters get Spooky Spooky by Frauborgmann

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So much drama and terror in this little video. Bravo!

Patterns: Tiny Gnome, Sophie & Chanel, Octopus from Adventures in Mochimochi Land, Spooky Ookie Cats

Witchy Tableau by Antipodeanstitchwitch

This adorable scene is comprised of some exquisite Mochimochis and mods!
(This fiber artist’s original creations are also amazing—check them out!)

Patterns (via the knitter’s caption: I modified the What-to-Werewolf [from Super-Scary Mochimochi] to make my witch. The white mouse is based on the Tiny Armadillo pattern [from Teeny-Tiny Mochimochi]. I also used the Tiny Owl, Plucky Mushrooms, Tiny Cacti and Cat in a Life Preserver patterns.Oh!! I also scaled down the free snail pattern to make a teeny tiny snail (it’s munching on the pot plant).

Fright Night by Aliceisknitting67

(Click to play video!)

OK Alice’s entry is beyond spooky and hilarious! Well done!!

Patterns: Tiny Gnome, Tiny Balloon from Adventures in Mochimochi Land, and Alice’s imagination!

How great are these!!! Check out all the spooky spooky entries (there are many more fantastic ones!) at the #Spookyspookymochimochi hashtag.

Thank you so much to everyone who entered! You are all such an inspiration to me!

It’s a Spooky Spooky contest!

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Let’s share some delightful frights with a spooky Mochimochi contest! Your creation can be wearing a costume, or just somebody who’s spooky all on their own!

👻 Tag your Instagram post with @mochimochiworld and #spookyspookymochimochi

👻 Use a Mochimochi Land pattern as your base—modifications are great! (Any pattern from one of my books, from the Mochimochi Shop, or a free pattern from my blog counts)

👻 One entry per person, please!

👻 Three winners will each receive a $50 Mochimochi Land gift card!

👻 Deadline is October 30th 👻

Happy October

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Happy October! 🎃
(Hope you’re not sick of pumpkins yet!)

Making this GIF was a little animation challenge for me—I wanted to see if I could incorporate a burst of photos (to capture pumpkins falling quickly) into an otherwise straightforward stop-motion animation. It kind of worked! I also briefly considered knitting an umbrella, but ended up just painting a paper cocktail umbrella because I had other stuff to do. 😬

Upcoming Virtual Seminar and Classes with River City Yarns

I’m thrilled that River City Yarns in Edmonton, Alberta, has invited me for some online events in October and November! Check out the seminar and ALL NEW classes below. (Click on the event name for full information and registration.) Hope to see you there!

Saturday Seminar on October 9
This will be a fun chat with me all about knitting tiny toys! I’ll also talk about how I make them move in my stop-motion animations and GIFs, and you’ll get the inside scoop about what’s coming up in Mochimochi Land.

Knit a Tiny Cat! Saturday, Saturday, October 30

In the spirit of Halloween, let’s knit tiny cats together! In this class, we’ll cover toy knitting techniques like working with a small number of stitches on double-pointed needles, I-cord limbs, and picking up stitches for ears and a tail. You can choose if you’ll make a walking cat or a seated cat. We’ll also discuss embroidered variations and how to customize your cat by breed.

Tiny Gingerbread Friends, Saturday, November 20

Get an early start on your holiday knitting with quick, tiny gingerbread friends (also known as Crumbles)! This intermediate project incorporates several toy knitting techniques into a very small package: joining legs into a round on double-pointed needles, picking up stitches, and icing embroidery. The more you make, the faster they go!

Teeny-Tiny Mochimochi 10th Anniversary

Do you remember this book?

Somehow, it’s been TEN YEARS since Teeny-Tiny Mochimochi was published!

My second book of knitting patterns captured my new obsession with knitting tiny little creatures. That obsession had started out as a mere short-term project to see if I could design and knit a new “tiny thing” every day for a month, and when that month passed, I just kept going…

…until it seemed that I might as well make a book out of all these little creatures! It wasn’t quite so simple as that, but I had a lot of support from my then-editor at Potter Craft, Joy Aquilino. She helped me select around 20 of the best from this project, along with some new additions, to turn into patterns for a new book.

My tiny designs have evolved quite a bit since, but I consider the projects in Teeny-Tiny Mochimochi to be Mochimochi Land classics, and they’re a great starting place for knitters who are new to small projects on DPNs.

Brandi Simons, who did the photography for my first book, Knitting Mochimochi, did a terrific job again with this book. The best part of the process was the way we worked together to figure out the simple props and backgrounds, and I assisted her with all the shoots too. Here’s Brandi getting the Tiny Computer ready for his close up.

The Tiny Gnome had some help from toothpicks and fishing line to make him and his mushrooms look just perfect.

(Seriously, I learned so many of my photography tricks from Brandi during these shoots!)

This tiny trash can is a project that didn’t make it into the book…

…but if you want to knit it you can find it in Tiny Mochis Collection 3.

Here I am adjusting the strings of these Tiny Ghosts. (This might have been the last time I was photographed with zero gray hairs!)

…and later, of course, I made one of these ghosties into one of my favorite GIFs.

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A lot more work went into this book besides the photography, namely, testing by some very talented and sharp-eyed knitters, many of whom are still test knitting my patterns! Oh boy how the time has flown.

I still see people’s projects that they make from this book all the time, and they make me just as happy as when the book first came out. If you’re able to use Ravelry, check out all the favorited projects that knitters have linked to the book—all 165 pages of them!

You can still get a copy of Teeny-Tiny Mochimochi from a bunch of booksellers, both online and in person, plus hopefully your local library has it too! An ebook version is also available.

Since Teeny-Tiny, I’ve probably designed enough tiny things to fill at least three more books. And I do think it would be fun to write another book of patterns sometime! For now, I’m working on something that’s technically in the fiction category, and having great fun with it. More on that…eventually!