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Pearl and the Beard Giveaway

Posted on by Anna

Our giveaway winner is comment #40 by knitcrazy!

Me, my Mom, and my Mom’s friend Vera. We all love knitting (well, maybe my Mom less), so we would be wearing and knitting the sweater at the same time!

You may have noticed that occasionally I blog about music that I love, even though most of my blog is dedicated to things knitting related. Very seldom do these two interests collide, so you can imagine my excitement when I heard about Pearl and the Beard, a fantastic Brooklyn band (so, also local to me!) with a love for knitting. The 3-person sweater pictured on their new album was made by Jocelyn Mackenzie, one of the members!

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Killing the Darlings is definitely 3-person sweater-worthy.

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Pearl and the Beard draw you in with warm 3-part harmonies that are sweet and haunting at the same time—combined with masterfully played acoustic instruments (cello, guitar), the songs are steeped in tradition with a very 2011 spirit. Just check out this free track from the album, “Reverend”:

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So about that sweater. Jocelyn designed and made it herself using a knitting machine, which is something I’ve been really interested in lately. She explains how it all happened in this video.

I mentioned a giveaway in the title of this post, and it’s true! Pearl and the Beard are letting me give away a copy of Killing the Darlings to one person, so I’d like to ask you all: who would you put in your 3-person sweater? Myself, I’d wear the sweater with my two cats. They would hate it, but it would make for a great photo shoot!

Let us know who your sweater companions would be in the comments to this post, and I’ll randomly select a winner this Friday, July 1st. If the winner is in the US, they’ll get a physical copy of the album, and if they’re out of the country, they’ll get the album as a download. Good luck!

Jell-o Imitates Life

Posted on by Anna

On Saturday I attended Jell-o Takes New York, a jell-o mold competition at the Gowanus Studio Space in Brooklyn. Who is interested in Jell-o molds these days, you ask? All of these people, that’s who.

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The strange new forms that gelatin and agar were taking in this room boggled the mind. They included Jell-o “shots”…

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And a Jell-o piano that could actually be played because of electric fields or something crazy like that.

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Jell-o was being projected on a wall…

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And there were TWO entries of Jell-o breakfast, one of which I photographed.

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Many of the Jell-o artists, it turns out, used 3D printing technology to make their molds, which added an intriguing layer of technology to the competition. And did I mention you could sample all of the Jell-o? It was an interesting mixture of extremely beautiful and stomach-turning presentation, and I only ended up trying three, two of which were delicious (coffee/caramel/cinnamon and lemon meringue pie).

As it was a competition, there were winners, which are listed on the Gowanus Studio Space website.

The event did not disappoint as far as wacky “new Brooklyn” events go—I can’t say I feel any more or less inclined to eat jell-o than usual, but the whole thing was fun and inspiring!

The Tale of Tiny Viking

Posted on by Anna

With your help, today we present the epic tale of Tiny Viking, who braved the wooly wilds on the vast outskirts of Mochimochi Land.

According to Shama D, first our Tiny Viking decided that she would conquer the dreaded fiber-breathing dragon!!!

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(The part of the dragon is played by Tiny Dino, who will appear in Teeny-Tiny Mochimochi!)

His breath made this conquest so not worth it, though, so she moved on.

Next, Erin Berry tells of her quest to conquer “the ring.” But alas, that’s just a stitch marker…sigh.

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And finally, Mandy recounts the day that Tiny Viking set out to conquer the Isle of Fair with needles in hand. But no matter how many times she tried, she ended up with tangled yarn.

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And that was the end of Tiny Viking. Just kidding—I hear she took up crochet and is now spending her days happily making granny-square sails for her ship.

Thank you to everyone who participated in the caption contest! (There were many other cute and hilarious captions!) And for Shama D, Erin Berry, and Mandy, I have three Potter Craft totes to send you. Congrats!

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Tiny Viking

Posted on by Anna

The three winning captions are featured in The Tale of Tiny Viking!

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She is a fierce Tiny Viking and she’s ready to conquer something big! But what should that be?

Leave your conquest suggestion in the comments (one per person, please), and we’re going to choose THREE favorites on Monday for a special prize!

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Potter Craft, the publisher of Teeny-Tiny Mochimochi, is celebrating five years of craft books, and they’ve given me three anniversary totes to give away. It’s a great large and heavy-duty bag, perfect for shopping. So think like a Tiny Viking, and one could be yours!

Hey That’s MY Book!

Posted on by Anna

Look what came the other day!

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Finally, my own copy of Teeny-Tiny Mochimochi! But as you can see, it was quickly claimed by a Tiny Gnome.

First he found the Tiny Hot Dog, and immediately demanded that I make him one. (I told him to finish looking at the book first.)

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Next he checked out the who’s-who of knitted folks like him. Tiny Mermaid seemed to catch his eye…

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Then he found his favorite page!

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Tiny Gnome decided he had seen all the highlights worth seeing. Now where is that Tiny Hot Dog I promised?

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Teeny-Tiny Mochimochi is coming out August 16th! You can pre-order it on Amazon and the Barnes & Noble website. In August, you’ll be able to find it in many local yarn stores, and signed copies will be available in the Mochimochi Shop!

Rush Hour on the Mochi Train

Posted on by Anna

The mochi count is now at… 320! So in August, the Lion Brand Yarn Studio in NYC will be home to at least that many mochis, all stuck together into one very colorful art piece. I started sewing them together recently, and I’ve been having a blast.

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I want to keep the final piece under wraps until August, but that’s a little peek at how part of it is looking. It’s a good thing that everybody showered just before things got cozy! 320 quickly starts to seem like a very small number when they’re all squooshed together like this, so I’ll keep making as many as I can and keep adding more to the piece.

The finished piece will be on display at the Lion Brand Yarn Studio August 1st through October 31st. Much of the yarn that I’m using came courtesy of Koigu, so once again, big thank-yous are in order for both Lion Brand and Koigu!

No Dolls Allowed

Posted on by Anna

Yesterday I went to the Museum of the City of New York with my mom, who was visiting for a few days. Unfortunately much of the museum’s permanent collection was not on view because of renovations, but we got to see the Stettheimer dollhouse, which was pretty fascinating.

Here’s an image of some of the dollhouse rooms from the museum’s website:

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I didn’t have my camera with me and there aren’t many good photos of it online. Made by the New Yorker Carrie Stettheimer in the early 20th century, it’s charming as a dollhouse, but the most fascinating thing about it is the miniature artwork that decorates many of its walls. These tiny pieces were created by some well-known artists, including Marcel Duchamp and Gaston Lachaise, friends of the Stettheimer family.

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I’ve never been a dollhouse hobbyist, but like train sets, there’s something irresistibly charming about the miniature possibilities they offer. After leaving the museum, I recalled seeing a very unusual dollhouse at the Museum of Arts and Design last fall made by Jennifer Angus. Her highly decorative piece, which was part of the “Dead or Alive” exhibit, was an enclosed dollhouse (viewable only through peep holes) inhabited by hundreds of posed insects.

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It was my favorite piece in a very fun and unusual exhibition.

So now I’m thinking I need to make a dollhouse! Knitted of course. Knitted color work walls, knitted grizzly bear rugs, knitted gnomes in the garden, and gargoyles on the roof. This would be a big project, but so much fun, right? Surely I’ll find the time to get started on it one of these days…

Tiny Popsicles are Budding Entrepreneurs

Posted on by Anna

So what do a pair of twin popsicles talk about while they’re biding their time in the freezer? The world never knew… until now!

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“We should have our own clothing line, like the Olsen twins.”
“But clear plastic is sooooo last season.”

That awesome caption was suggested by Heather, who wins a free pattern for Flapjack Frogs. Yay!

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Many of you came up with super cute and funny captions—you can read them all in comments to this post.